-jh^p'jsv: 


'.*< 


■ 


FROM   THE   LIBRARY   OF 
REV.   LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON,   D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED    BY   HIM   TO 

THE   LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY 


sec 


I 


■ 


!■ 


^■m 


■ 
■ 


■ 


I 


■ 


■   '  •  ■       ■ 


■ 


■ 


W 


■ 


■ 


^^^H 


<rs,     -a-* 


m 


(  r  F 


*A* 


JAfJ  4  1337 


SERMONS  ANDCS 

J* 


afc 


OF 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE. 


BY 


EDMUND    H.    SEARS, 

AUTHOR    OF    "THE    HEART    OF    CHKIST,"    "REGENERATION, 
AND    "  FOREGLEAMS    OF    IMMORTALITY." 


BOSTON: 
NOYES,    HOLMES,   AND    COMPANY, 

219  Washington  Street. 

PHILADELPHIA: 

CLAXTON,  REMSEN,  AND  HAFFELFINGER. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1874,  by 

Noyes,  Holmes,  and  Company, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


RIVERSIDE,    CAMBRIDGE  : 

STEREOTYPED     AND     PRINTED     BY 

H.    O.    HOUGHTON    AND   COMPANY- 


TO  THE 

THREE     CHRISTIAN     SOCIETIES 

IN 

LANCASTER,   WAYLAND,   AND   WESTON, 

IN    WHOSE    SERVICE    THESE    SERMONS    WERE    FIRST     PREPARED,     AND    WITH 

WHOM     I     HAVE     HELD    PASTORAL    RELATIONS,     FRAUGHT    WITH 

THE    MEMORIES    OF     HAPPY    YEARS, 

€!)te  fmlume 

IS   MOST  GRATEFULLY  INSCRIBED. 


PREFACE. 


The  discourses  comprised  in  this  volume  have 
been  selected  with  special  reference  to  those  days 
observed  by  the  Christian  Church  in  commemora- 
tion of  the  fundamental  facts  of  the  Gospel  history, 
and  to  the  Christian  life  and  experience  which  grow 
from  a  living  apprehension  of  the  system  of  truth 
which  rests  upon  them.  I  do  not  regard  it  as  the 
province  of  the  Sermon  to  go  behind  the  facts  them- 
selves, or  try  to  prove  them.  That  belongs  to  works 
of  another  kind.  The  Sermon  assumes  them  as 
premises  acknowledged  by  the  congregation,  and 
prophesies  from  them,  but  in  such  wise  and  with 
such  applications  to  the  wants  of  the  human  heart, 
as  to  complement  the  historical  evidence  with  the 
clearest  spiritual  vision  and  the  most  assured  expe- 
rience of  Christian  believers.  This  in  itself  is  evi- 
dence, and  without  it  the  historical  facts  are  of  little 
avail,  and  finally  lose  their  hold,  even  upon  the  in- 
tellect, notwithstanding  the  completeness  of  the  his- 
toric demonstration. 

In  our  church  service  the  Sermon  consummates 
in  the  hymn,  or  sacred  song,  which  makes  the  heart 
lyrical  with  the  truth   it  sets  forth.     The  idea  that 


VI  PREFACE. 

the  sentiment  which  inspires  the  hymn  is  a  hindrance 
to  exact  criticism,  or  the  clearest  and  truest  interpre- 
tation of  the  record,  I  resist  as  false  in  theory,  and 
proved  abundantly  so  in  practice.  A  plodding  criti- 
cism keeps  close  to  the  earth,  and  fails  to  see  the  sig- 
nificance of  some  of  the  most  large  and  positive  affir- 
mations of  the  Gospel  narrative,  and  so  pares  them 
away  and  reduces  the  whole  Christian  Revelation 
within  the  compass  of  our  earthly  vision.  The  best 
and  most  trustworthy  historians  are  men  who  have 
enough  of  the  imaginative  faculty  to  reproduce  the 
past  as  it  really  lived ;  and  the  best  commentators 
have  been  men  whose  intuitions  were  large  and  deep 
enough  to  bring  them  into  some  correspondency  with 
the  Mind  that  inspired  the  letter,  so  that  they  may 
not  merely  dig  over  the  surface  of  the  letter  itself. 

Without  claiming  these  qualifications,  I  would  only 
say  that  I  had  written  at  different  times  several  lyr- 
ical pieces  which  were  afloat  in  collections  of  hymns, 
or  in  periodicals,  sometimes  altered  and  mutilated. 
I  have  brought  them  together  in  this  volume,  some 
of  them  revised  and  amended,  some  of  them  simply 
restored,  and  I  have  added  others  not  before  pub- 
lished. As  they  are  more  or  less  adapted  to  the  sub- 
jects of  the  discourses,  and  help  to  give  the  truths 
which  they  handle  a  fullness  of  utterance,  I  have  in- 
terspersed them,  like  the  hymns  in  the  Sunday  Ser- 
vice, though  some  of  them  are  lyrics  rather  than 
hymns.    The  song,  or  hymn,  should  be  a  summing  up 


PREFACE.  Vll 

of  the  sermon,  helping  us  to  take  home  its  truth,  and 
so  carry  it  with  us  as  to  fill  our  daily  life  with  its 
melodies.  I  hesitated  long  in  regard  to  some  of 
these  songs,  because  they  are  flavored  so  much  with 
personal  experience  ;  but  this  is  true  of  most  of  the 
hymns  that  speak  to  the  condition  of  others,  and  as 
best  advised,  I  concluded  to  put  them  in,  trusting  to 
the  large  indulgence  of  my  readers. 

The  Sermons  were  written,  not  for  the  press,  but 
the  pulpit,  and  are  given  mainly  as  they  were  deliv- 
ered. I  should  revise  them  a  good  deal  more  if  I 
sought  to  reduce  them  to  the  standard  of  classical 
taste,  but  I  believe  in  that  way  they  would  lose  in 
point  and  directness  ;  and  so  I  dismiss  them  as  they 
are,  hoping  they  will  find  a  response  in  the  hearts  of 
some  readers  worthy  of  the  themes  which  they  set 
forth. 

I  believe  every  Christian  should  have  church  rela- 
tions, and  be  faithful  to  them,  and  I  have  always 
studied  to  render  faithful  service  to  the  denomina- 
tion where  a  good  Providence  placed  me  ;  not  by  try- 
ing to  conform  to  the  average  opinions  which  may 
be  current  among  them  to-day,  but  by  trying  to  grasp 
and  bring  forth  anew  the  vital  truths  essential  alike 
to  individual  progress  and  denominational  life.  For 
when  brought  face  to  face  with  the  central  truths  of 
Christianity,  the  idea  of  sect  merges  in  the  larger 
conception  of  the  Church  Universal,  with  Christ  for 
its  living  Head  and  daily  inspiration.     I  believe  the 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

best  service  which  any  man  can  render  his  denomi- 
nation is  to  help  on  a  consummation  like  this  ;  and 
this  I  would  do  in  perfect  loyalty  to  the  branch  of 
the  Church  to  which  it  is  my  privilege  to  belong,  and 
as  some  return  for  the  large  freedom  of  opinion  and 
utterance  which  they  have  vouchsafed  and  defended. 
The  time  I  believe  is  not  far  off  when  there  is  to  be 
larger  freedom  in  every  branch  of  the  Christian  Zion 
for  the  treatment  and  readjustment  of  the  great 
truths  of  Religion,  and  that  this  freedom  is  to  con- 
summate, not  in  new  divisions,  but  in  broader  and 
warmer  fellowship,  and  a  more  perfect  and  compre- 
hending unity.  For  it  will  be  a  unity  not  imposed 
from  without,  but  a  growth  within,  from  more  intel- 
ligent convictions  and  the  deeper  inspirations  of  the 
Spirit  which  comes  through  these  convictions  them- 
selves. E.  H.  S. 


CONTENTS. 


SERMONS. 

I.  The  Cloud  of  Witnesses 

II.  One  Mediator 

III.  The  W i li -power 

IV.  Calvary  .... 
V.  Resurrection  and  Ascension 

VI.  Intercessions  of  the  Spirit 
VII.  The  Gospel  Contrasts    . 
VIII.  Treading  the  Wine-press 
IX.  The  New  Creation 
X.  Concerning  Death 
XI.  The  Universal  Redemption 
XII.  The  Box  of  Ointment 

XIII.  No  more  Sea     . 

XIV.  The  Christian  Church  as  a  Means  of 
XV.  Ideals  of  Womanhood    . 

XVI.  The  Divine  Life-plan 

XVII.   Home 

XVIII.   Heavenly  Treasures  ... 

XIX.  The  Immediate  Knowledge  of  God 


Progress 


PAGE 

i 

19 
35 
5i 
67 
85 
99 
117 

135 
149 
167 

183 
199 
219 

239 

259 
279 
297 
3i9 


SONGS  AND  HYMNS. 

Christmas  Carols .17 

Christmas  Song 33 

Peace,  be  Still 49 

The  Twisted  Thorn v      65 

A  Song  of  Victory 81 


X  CONTENTS. 

PACK 

The  Three  Advents  .    ' 97 

A  Song  in  the  Minor  Key 115 

The  Silent  Prayer 131 

The  New  Morning 147 

Little  Willie  Waking  Up               .        .        .        ■.        .  163 

The  Young  Hunter 181 

Ideals 197 

Parted 215 

Not  Lost  but  Risen 216 

Song  for  the  Coming  Crisis 235 

Hymn  for  the  Plymouth  Celebration          .        .        .  237 

Girlhood  and  Womanhood 255 

Above  the  Storms 275 

"  Feed  My  Lambs  " 293 

Glad  Worship 294 

I  Want  no  Flowers 295 

Vesper  Hymn 296 

Chambers  of  Imagery 313 


SERMONS   AND    SONGS. 


I. 

THE    CLOUD    OF   WITNESSES. 

(preached  all-saints  day.) 

Hebrews  xii.  i.  Seeing  we  also  are  compassed  about  with  so 
great  a  cloud  of  witnesses,  let  us  lay  aside  every  weight, 
and  the  sin  which  doth  so  easily  beset  us,  and  let  us  run 
with  patience  the  race  that  is  set  before  us. 

r  I  ^HE  writer  of  this  book,  called  "  the  Epistle  to 
■*-  the  Hebrews,"  is  not  known  with  any  cer- 
tainty. There  is  no  question,  however,  that  it  is  a 
genuine  production  of  the  primitive  Church,  written 
by  one  of  the  contemporaries  of  the  Apostles,  and 
that  it  reflects  the  mind  of  the  early  believer  before 
Christianity  had  been  corrupted  by  pagan  philoso- 
phy. The  book  has  a  unity  and  plan  which  are  very 
striking,  and  it  sets  forth  the  apostolic  doctrine  with 
much  fervor  and  perspicuity. 

In  the  chapter  from  wThich  I  take  the  text,  and 
indeed  the  whole  chapter  preceding,  the  writer  sets 
forth   the   doctrine  of  angels.     He   goes  back   and 


2  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

enumerates  a  long  train  of  martyrs  who  have  passed 
up  to  the  skies,  some  of  them  through  the  baptism 
of  blood  and  fire.  These,  he  reminds  his  readers, 
are  a  witness-train,  and  he  refers  to  them  as  if  they 
were  still  looking  on  ;  a  vast  company  that  girds 
them  round  to  help  them  gain  the  victory.  His  doc- 
trine seems  to  be,  Ye  are  acting  in  no  obscure 
corner.  All  the  ranks  above  are  looking  on.  You 
stand  at  the  centre  of  an  immense  amphitheatre. 
Row  beyond  row  they  are  watching  you.  "  Ye  are 
come  unto  Mount  Zion,  to  the  city  of  the  living 
God  ;  to  the  heavenly  Jerusalem  ;  to  an  innumerable 
company  of  angels ;  to  the  general  assembly  of 
the  church  of  the  first-born  which  are  written  in 
heaven  ;  to  the  spirits  of  good  men  made  perfect  ; 
and  to  God  the  judge  of  all."  He  does  not  refer  to 
these  merely  as  examples.  Those  who  have  put  on 
immortality  he  calls  elsewhere  "  ministering  spirits 
sent  forth  to  minister  for  them  who  shall  be  heirs  of 
salvation."  Such,  as  we  gather  from  no  obscure  in- 
timations in  the  Acts  and  in  Paul's  writings,  and 
from  the  words  of  the  Master  himself,  was  the  prim- 
itive Christian  doctrine  of  guardian  angels.  I  need 
not  say  what  courage  and  what  earnest  of  victory  it 
gave  to  the  early  converts  to  Christianity.  It  was 
as  if  countless  tiers  of  faces  were  looking  down, 
turning  aside  in  grief  if  they  faltered  and  failed  ;  and 
as  if  hands  multitudinous  as  the  waves  clapped  to- 
gether and  cheered  them  on  at  every  victory  they 
achieved. 


THE  CLOUD   OF  WITNESSES.  3 

This  admirable  Christian  philosophy,  or  rather 
pneumatology,  became  corrupted.  It  degenerated 
into  saint-worship  and  thence  into  image-worship. 
In  this  way,  by  about  the  seventh  century,  the  old  pa- 
ganism under  new  names  had  been  imported  into  the 
very  heart  of  the  Church  and  the  worship  of  pictures 
and  statues  entered  largely  into  the  cultus  of  Chris- 
tendom. The  fiercest  struggle  of  the  eighth  century 
arose  from  an  attempt  of  the  Greek  Emperor  to  re- 
form the  paganism  of  the  Church  and  break  the  im- 
ages. It  was  in  vain.  The  people  rose  up  every- 
where in  rebellion  against  the  edicts.  "  I  am  too 
poor,"  writes  one  of  the  bishops,  "  to  possess  books. 
I  have  no  leisure  for  reading.  I  enter  a  church 
choked  with  the  cares  of  the  world  ;  the  glowing 
colors  attract  my  sight  and  delight  my  eyes  like  a 
flowery  meadow,  and  the  glory  of  God  steals  imper- 
ceptibly into  my  soul.  I  gaze  on  the  fortitude  of  the 
martyr  and  the  crown  with  which  he  is  rewarded,  and 
the  fire  of  holy  enthusiasm  kindles  within  me,  and 
I  fall  down  and  worship  God,  and  through  the  mar- 
tyr receive  salvation." 

It  was  the  abuse  of  a  doctrine  educed  from  the 
deep  wants  of  the  human  heart.  Protestantism 
should  have  respected  the  doctrine  itself  and  cleared 
it  of  idolatrous  perversion.  But  the  reformers  of  the 
sixteenth  century  swept  away  not  only  the  corrup- 
tions but  the  doctrine  along  with  them  ;  so  that  our 
denuded  Protestantism  looks  up  and  finds  the  wit- 


4  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

ness-train  all  vanished  from  sight  and  a  blank  space 
between  us  and  the  naked  heavens. 

The  cloud  of  witnesses  !  We  will  endeavor  to  bring 
out  the  primitive  Christian  doctrine  and  show  its 
practical  use,  power,  and  influence.  That  this  innu- 
merable train  of  witnesses  are  spectators  of  all  that 
we  do,  or  even  have  cognizance  of  our  external  life, 
would  be  a  construction  altogether  too  literal, 
avouched  neither  by  Scripture  nor  reason.  Only 
the  Omniscient  eye  sees  all  our  actions  and  all  states 
of  mind  and  affection  ere  yet  they  have  ripened  into 
conduct.  In  quite  other  methods,  however,  the  wit- 
ness-train may  beset  us  and  engird  us,  and  be  a  more 
mighty  incentive  to  us  than  they  could  become  as 
outside  witnesses  or  lookers-on. 

The  general  doctrine  as  I  apprehend  it  is  this,  — 
that  the  spirit-world  and  this  are  continuous  and 
interblending  and  from  that  run  down  into  this  the 
influence  and  energy  on  which  we  draw  mightily' in 
our  struggles  and  conquests  ;  that  no  man  is  alone 
or  isolated  ;  that  there  are  chords  of  sympathy  that 
run  from  us  along  the  higher  ranks  of  being  ;  that 
the  repentance  of  a  single  sinner  is  an  event  that 
sends  a  wavelet  of  joy  into  the  breasts  of  those  who 
have  been  an  invisible  guard  around  his  virtue  and 
helped  determine  his  decision  for  the  right.1  The 
universe  is  related  part  to  part,  visible  and  invisible. 
There   are   laws  of    attraction   pertaining   to    mind 

1  See  Luke  xv.  7,  10. 


THE   CLOUD   OF  WITNESSES.  5 

and  spirit  as  well  as  matter,  which  no  gulfs  of  space 
can  suspend  or  abolish,  so  that  no  portion  is  broken 
off  from  any  other  portion  ;  but  there  are  fine  threads 
of  nerve  which  run  through  the  whole  and  make  a 
calamity  in  one  part  a  calamity  to  all.  But  let  me 
illustrate  and  break  the  general  doctrine  into  its 
specialties.  The  cloud  of  witnesses  may  be  mani- 
fest and  affect  us  in  one  or  all  of  three  ways  :  — 

To  sight,  or  external  senses  ; 

To  faith  made  rational  and  clear  ; 

To  the  heart  made  peaceful  and  strong. 

I.  There  may  be  disclosures  of  immortality  to 
our  grosser  perceptions  ;  I  will  not  say  to  the  bodily 
senses,  but  to  the  senses  that  lie  close  within  them 
and  are  sheathed  by  them,  and  which  before  death 
as  well  as  after  may  have  open  converse  with  higher 
things.  This  is  only  saying  that  we  are  already  im- 
mortal beings  and  belong  to  a  higher  sphere  than 
this  earthly  one.  This,  however,  is  not  the  sort  of 
disclosure  which  the  Scriptures  refer  to  when  they 
speak  of  the  company  of  the  witness-train.  This 
writer  to  the  Hebrews  does  not  mean  that  we  are 
connected  by  sense  with  them  nor  they  with  us,  for 
he  puts  into  the  same  enumeration  Jesus  the  Media- 
tor of  the  New  Covenant  and  God  the  Judge  of  all. 
The  reasons  against  any  such  connection  as  this,  as 
a  normal  condition  of  our  present  being,  are  obvious 
enough.  A  sentient  connection  with  spheres  of  be- 
ing where  our  duties  do  not  lie  would  not  enlarge 


6  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

and  strengthen  but  repress  our  higher  and  nobler 
manhood.  Even  now  and  here  the  continual  prob- 
lem is  how  to  keep  the  sense  faculties  from  becom- 
ing so  luxuriant  as  to  overtop  and  repress  the 
reason.  They  are  the  most  seductive,  the  most 
bewildering,  the  most  lying  of  all  our  faculties,  un- 
less educated  and  subordinated  and  their  impressions 
constantly  corrected  and  verified  by  the  rational 
powers.  The  infant,  when  his  senses  first  open  upon 
this  world,  sees  all  its  objects  projected  confusedly 
upon  one  ground,  and  he  must  learn  by  experience 
the  laws  of  perspective.  It  took  five  thousand  years 
of  unfolding  reason  to  reverse  the  verdict  of  the 
senses  which  reported  the  universe  inside  out  and 
upside  down.  Men  of  science  tell  us  at  this  day 
that  descriptions  of  phenomena  by  unscientific  ob- 
servers are  unreliable  and  nearly  worthless  for  all 
the  purposes  of  science.  For  yet  stronger  reasons, 
if  in  this  childhood  of  our  being  the  spirit-world 
were  given  to  our  senses,  it  wrould  give  us  phe- 
nomena rather  than  the  higher  realities  ;  appear- 
ances rather  than  the  laws  that  underlie  them  — 
those  eternal  and  universal  laws  which  in  the  book 
of  Divine  Revelation  are  addressed  to  a  higher  and 
worthier  part  of  our  nature.  Even  when  our  spir- 
itual senses  are  first  unsheathed  and  the  eternal  sub- 
stances are  about  us,  it  seems  probable  from  all 
analogy  that  appearances  will  lie  upon  us  adaptive 
and  tender,  and  melt  away  or  disclose  the  laws  that 


THE   CLOUD   OF   WITNESSES.  7 

govern  them,  as  our  higher  nature  unfolds  and  is 
prepared  for  the  eternal  verities  in  their  unclouded 
glory. 

For  yet  higher  reasons  the  witness-train  are  not 
manifest  to  our  senses.  Hero-worship  in  this 
world  is  a  very  dangerous  kind  of  homage,  tending 
to  draw  out  of  the  worshipper  the  prime  principles 
of  manhood  and  waft  incense  to  the  pride  and 
vanity  of  the  hero.  Saint-worship  is  more  danger- 
ous still,  and  would  become  sheer  idolatry  if  we  had 
visible  connection  and  intercourse  with  the  witness- 
train —  for  among  that  train  are  your  own  kinsfolk, 
to  whom  your  hearts  went  out  in  their  warmest  love, 
and  to  whom  in  their  glorified  being  the  affections 
yearn  with  a  fervor  which  time  does  not  cool,  but 
fans,  rather,  into  more  burning  flame.  If  they  ap- 
peared above  you  they  would  fill  the  void  till  the 
Father's  face  were  shut  out  from  view,  and  you 
would  need  constantly  the  voice  of  the  rebuking 
angel  —  "  See  thou  do  it  not !  "  Hence  the  guards, 
the  warnings,  the  denunciations  interposed  through- 
out the  old  Bible,  and  repeated  in  the  new,  against 
the  necromancy  that  would  substitute  "  familiar 
spirits "  for  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  or  take  reports 
from  them  as  a  revelation  from  heaven. 

II.  There  was  a  man,  nevertheless,  who  appeared 
in  this  world  with  all  the  wants  and  susceptibilities 
of  our  human  nature,  and  so  endowed  at  the  same 
time  with  the  presence  and  indwelling  of  the  God- 


8  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

head,  that  none  of  these  dangers  beset  Him.  He 
dwelt  "in  heaven"  and  on  the  earth  at  the  same 
time.  Not  alone  the  words  of  Jesus  but  his  life  is 
a  revelation  to  us  on  this  as  on  kindred  themes. 
The  full  import  of  the  words,  that  He  "  brought  im- 
mortality to  light,"  will  appear  to  you  as  you  follow 
Him  from  Bethlehem  to  Ascension  Mount.  This 
life  divides  itself  into  four  of  its  grander  epochs, 
representing  the  periods  corresponding  to  it  in  every 
human  probation  on  the  earth  —  his  birth,  his  temp- 
tation, his  death,  and  his  return  to  his  place  on  high. 
At  each  of  these  events  the  clouds  disappear  from 
the  heights  and  show  the  heavens  touching  the 
earth,  and  the  cloud  of  witnesses  transfusing  celestial 
energy  through  its  affairs.  The  song  over  Bethle- 
hem was  the  quiring  of  "  the  young-eyed  cherubim," 
whose  melodies  have  never  died  away  since  the 
morning  stars  sang  together,  but  whose  chant  then 
and  there  was  so  strong  and  triumphant  that  it 
broke  audibly  through  the  discords  of  earth.  The 
angels  that  "  came  and  ministered  "  unto  Jesus  after 
his  great  victory  over  temptation,  disclose  one  of  the 
sources  of  that  ineffable  peace,  falling  as  it  were 
from  hovering  and  protecting  wings,  vouchsafed  to 
every  follower  of  Christ  when  he  triumphs  over  evil 
and  sin.  The  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  through 
which  Jesus  passed,  lay  between  the  Mount  of 
Transfiguration  and  the  open  sepulchre  of  resurrec- 
tion  morning.     The    witness-train   were  visible    on 


THE   CLOUD   OF   WITNESSES.  9 

the  mount,  in  Gethsemane,  and  at  the  sepulchre  ; 
they  were  close  on  the  other  side  as  the  divinely  ap- 
pointed guard  shining  through  the  rents  in  this  veil 
of  mortality.  And  on  Ascension  Mount  they  appear 
again.  Do  you  say  that  all  this  was  miracle  ?  Un- 
doubtedly it  was  ;  but  you  may  forget  that  miracle  is 
not  the  breaking  of  law,  but  the  revelation  thereof 
giving  us  fragmentary  gleams  of  the  vast  system  of 
agencies  and  workings  whose  unveiled  operation 
would  bewilder  and  amaze  us.  The  weak,  tempted, 
suffering  nature  of  Jesus  was  like  all  other  human 
natures.  He  came  not  to  save  Himself  but  to  save 
humanity  ;  to  lift  up  our  faith  into  serener  light ;  to 
take  up  our  experience  into  his  own,  and  show 
openly  at  the  same  time  the  helps  and  the  guards 
that  are  always  nigh.  His  experience  would  not  be 
ours,  unless  the  helps  and  the  guards  were  ours  as 
well  as  the  trials  and  the  sufferings.  Not  as  the 
Eternal  Creative  Word,  not  as  the  God-with-us  ,did 
He  need  the  angelic  ministries,  but  as  a  sharer  in 
our  common  humanity  ;  and  as  such  He  opens  vistas 
to  us  of  the  cloud  of  witnesses  that  surround  us, 
when  to  break  down  the  separating  wall  would  make 
sure  an  invasion  we  could  never  bear. 

If  not  to  the  senses,  then  yet  to  faith  made  ra- 
tional and  clear  the  witness  train  is  disclosed.  This 
is  what  the  writer  specially  means.  He  has  just 
given  an  admirable  description  of  this  faculty  of 
faith.     He  calls  it  the  substance  (v7roora<ris)  of  things 


IO  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

hoped  for,  the  demonstration  of  things  not  seen. 
That  is  to  say,  faith  made  open  and  clear  apprehends 
its  objects  as  the  real  substances  beyond  the  shift- 
ing panorama  of  sight.  Faith  has  the  demonstra- 
tion or  higher  beholding  of  things  invisible  to  mortal 
eyes.  He  appeals  here  to  a  power  within  us  which, 
being  divinely  touched  and  illumined,  lays  hold  of  its 
objects  and  possesses  them  with  an  assurance  beyond 
that  of  sight.  Jesus  not  only  had  disclosures  of  im- 
mortality, but  He  gives  interpretations  thereof,  and 
reveals  the  laws  and  the  substance  that  underlie 
them.  Without  these  interpretations  the  disclos- 
ures of  the  spirit-world  would  only  come  to  us  as 
"  apparitions,"  and  so  the  world  generally  has  agreed 
to  call  them.  Sight  only  gives  us  phenomena  ;  faith 
made  clear  and  rational  gives  us  what  lies  within  the 
phenomena,  and  is  the  ground  and  substance  of  all 
its  exflorations. 

Jllustrate.  Look  at  the  mazy  round  of  night  and 
day,  and  even  and  morn,  and  suns  and  stars  in  their 
courses  !  How  different  to  the  child  who  only  sees 
appearances  and  the  man  of  reason  who  sees  what  is 
within  them,  and  judges  not  from  phenomena  but 
from  eternal  and  shining  laws.  So  of  faith  made 
rational  and  clear.  To  our  higher  reason  God  may 
so  reveal  to  us  the  things  of  the  higher  life,  may 
make  the  laws  of  spiritual  existence  so  radiant  and 
all  harmonizing,  so  rounded  and  complete,  both  to 
the  intellect  and  the  heart,  that   the   eternal  world 


THE   CLOUD   OF   WITNESSES.  II 

shall  be  mirrored  down  to  us  here  in  time  as  it 
never  could  be  by  any  fragmentary  disclosures  to 
our  timid  and  wildering  senses.  And  when  this  is 
so,  faith  has  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  the 
demonstration  and  beholding  of  things  to  come,  just 
as  they  will  be  found  when  we  pass  into  them  down 
into  the  depths  of  the  endless  years  !  Hence  it  was 
that  these  first  Christians  acted  as  in  presence  of 
the  great  realities.  Those  realities  broke  upon  their 
faith  with  a  power  and  certitude  which  sense  even 
could  not  give,  so  that  on  the  cross  and  in  the 
fire  this  world  of  shows  faded  out  altogether,  and 
the  city  of  the  living  God,  the  heavenly  Jersalem,  the 
myriads  of  angels  in  full  assembly,  the  spirits  of 
good  men  perfected,  Jesus  the  mediator  and  God 
over  all,  —  these  rose  in  brightening  ranks  and  filled 
all  the  firmanent  of  vision  as  the  substance  of  things 
hoped  for,  and  of  which  all  things  else  are  but  the 
earnest  and  the  shadow. 

III.  But  higher  yet,  and  still  farther  inward,  are 
manifestations  to  us  of  the  cloud  of  witnesses  — 
namely,  to  the  heart  made  peaceful  and  strong. 

It  is,  I  believe,  a  law  of  spiritual  being,  that  there 
are  bonds  which  are  subtile  and  pervasive,  and 
which  join  the  body  of  true  disciples  as  a  living  and 
organic  whole,  so  that 

"  The  church  on  earth  and  all  the  dead 
But  one  communion  make." 

This,  in  fact,  is  the  doctrine  of  the  New  Testament, 


12  SERMOXS  AXD  SONGS. 

and  this  is  the  true  Catholic  Church,  standing  com- 
plete in  its  beauty  before  the  eye  of  the  Lord,  every 
part  joined  vitally  to  every  other  part,  each  receiving 
the  currents  of  life  from  all  the  rest,  and  being  thus 
swept  mightily  along.  There  are  two  kinds  of 
energy  by  which  the  Lord  draws  us  up  into  his 
peaceful  heavens.  One  is  communion  with  Himself, 
or  prayer,  the  other  is  that  energy  called  in  the 
Apostle's  Creed  "  the  communion  of  saints."  These 
last  words  have  come  to  mean  little  or  nothing  in 
our  rationalizing  Protestantism  that  crumbles  every- 
thing into  individualism.  In  the  primitive  Church 
they  meant  that  every  true  believer  was  included 
vitally  in  one  great  Catholicity,  in  which  he  was  per- 
vaded by  the  common  consciousness,  and  by  which 
the  life  of  all  the  saints  above  and  below  flowed  into 
him.  And  this  is  none  other  than  the  fulfillment 
of  the  prayer  of  Christ :  "  Holy  Father,  keep  through 
thine  own  name  those  whom  thou  hast  given  me, 
that  they  may  be  one  as  we  are.  As  thou,  Father, 
art  in  me  and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one 
in  us,  that  the  world  may  believe  that  thou  hast 
sent  me."  And  death  has  no  power  to  make  any 
rents  or  breaks  in  this  communion  and  this  unity. 
It  is  the  sphere  of  mind  flowing  into  mind,  and  heart 
into  heart ;  and  inasmuch  as  death  cleaves  away  our 
clumsy  clogs  and  hindrances,  these  interactions  are 
more  perfect  than  before.  The  Saviour  said,  "  If  I 
go  away  I  will  come  again  ; "  that  is,  come  nearer 


THE   CLOUD   OF   WITNESSES.  1 3 

than  ever.  This  is  that  Church  catholic  in  which 
human  popedoms  have  no  power  of  excommunica- 
tion, for  it  is  drawn  into  unity,  not  by  outward  dis- 
tinctions and  priestly  rules,  but  by  inward  fitness 
and  regeneration.  Hence,  with  every  evil  over- 
come, and  every  new  likeness  of  Christ  inwardly  put 
on,  you  are  brought  more  completely  within  the  cir- 
cle of  the  great  cloud  of  witnesses,  the  myriads  of 
angels  in  full  assembly,  and  the  spirits  of  good  men 
made  perfect  ;  their  strength  passes  mightily  into 
your  soul  and  their  peace  is  laid  brightly  within  the 
heart.  This  is  one  of  the  essential  elements  of  our 
strength  when  we  are  supported  and  buoyed  up  in 
doing  the  Divine  will.  You  are  not  marching  alone. 
You  feel  it ;  you  know  it.  Visible  or  invisible,  a 
mighty  host  is  with  you  ;  you  are  marching  with 
them  in  countless  and  serried  numbers  ;  one  spirit 
moves  the  whole  and  lifts  their  feet,  and  they  keep 
step  to  the  same  music.  If  we  are  with  the  right 
and  for  it,  though  all  the  world  have  gone  over  to 
the  other  side,  the  long  line  of  ancestral  and  glorified 
men  are  behind  us  and  breathing  upon  us, 

"  Troops  of  beautiful  tall  angels  to  enshield  us  from  all  wrong." 

If  they  came  to  us  from  without,  if  they  came  to 
our  timid  senses,  they  would  repress  our  manhood 
and  overlay  it ;  taking  the  place  of  our  reason  and 
leading  us  servilely  after  them.  But  now  they  build 
us  up  within,  their   celestial   energy  we   make   our 


14  S£RM(JArS  AND  SONGS. 

own  ;  we  appropriate  it  by  our  rational  and  volun- 
tary life,  and  so  put  it  on  as  our  robe  and  diadem. 

How  impressively  this  subject  appeals  to  us  now! 
We  have  just  closed  four  years  of  trial  during  which 
thousands  of  martyrs,  the  flower  of  the  country, 
have  given  up  their  lives  to  save  it.1  In  the  light  of 
my  subject,  death  has  not  taken  them  from  us,  but 
given  them  to  us,  and  their  spirit  is  to  inspire  our 
Future  and  help  to  unfold  it  For  the  more  of  good 
men  that  rise  up  to  the  place  of  ancestors,  the  more 
mighty  is  the  influence  that  comes  invisibly  from 
the  witness-train.  Yea,  the  more  consciously  and 
swiftly  will  the  earth  and  the  heavens  become  one. 
What  a  privilege,  in  this  view  of  the  matter,  to  live 
in  such  times  as  these !  And  how  animating  the 
thought  that  as  the  heavens  fill  up  and  bend  over 
us  more  nearly,  the  more  virtue  comes  down  to  the 
earth  and  the  swifter  its  redemption  draweth  nigh ! 

The  subject  abounds  with  incitements  to  the 
Christian  life  which  are  full  of  encouragement.  It 
takes  us  out  of  the  little  cliques  and  parties  of  the 
day,  and  places  us  among  the  blest  societies  of  all 
ages.  It  "raises  us  out  of  sect  and  puts  us  peacefully 
within  the  church  universal,  embracing  the  first- 
born which  are  written  in  heaven  and  the  last  good 
man  that  went  up  into  its  pale.  Your  home  may  be 
humble,  apart,  alone  ;  but  if  a  good  life  is  lived  there, 

1  This  sermon  was  preached  in  1865. 


THE   CLOUD   OF  WITNESSES.  15 

it  stands  in  the  centre  of  an  amphitheatre  thronged 
with  heavenly  multitudes,  all  bending  towards  you 
and  breathing  their  spirit  into  yours.  Nearest 
about  you  are  those  of  like  character,  like  trials,  and 
like  victories,  who  have  conquered  through  just  such 
a  path  as  yours,  and  whose  life  beats  through  you 
with  every  step  that  is  gained.  Farther  up  are  the 
lengthening  ranges,  the  clouds  of  witnesses,  and 
looking  down  through  all  and  breathing  through  all, 
is  Christ  the  Mediator  of  the  new  covenant  and  God 
the  Judge  of  all.  Only  remember  the  condition 
by  which  you  put  on  the  strength  and  are  swept  by 
the  spirit  of  this  goodly  multitude,  —  "  laying  aside 
every  weight,  and  the  sin  that  doth  so  easily  beset 
us,  and  running  with  patience  the  race  that  is  set 
before  us,  ever  looking  to  Jesus  the  author  and  fin- 
isher of  our  faith." 


CHRISTMAS   CAROLS. 

It  came  upon  the  midnight  clear, 

That  glorious  song  of  old, 
From  angels  bending  near  the  earth 

To  touch  their  harps  of  gold ; 
Peace    on  the  earth,  good  will  to  men 

From  heaven's  all-gracious  King  "  — 
The  world  in  solemn  stillness  lay 

To   hear   the   angels    sing. 

Still  through  the  cloven  skies  they  come 

With  peaceful  wings  unfurled, 
And  still  their  heavenly  music  floats 

O'er  all  the  weary  world  ; 
Above  its  sad  and  lowly  plains 

They  bend  on  hovering  wing, 
And  ever  o'er  its  Babel-sounds 

The  blessed  angels  sing. 

But  with  the  woes  of  sin  and  strife 

The  world  has  suffered  long ; 
Beneath  the  angel-strain  have  rolled 

Two  thousand  years  of  wrong  ; 
And  man,  at  war  with  man,  hears  not 
The  love-song  which  they  bring  ;  — 
Oh  hush  the  noise,  ye  men  of  strife, 
And  hear  the   angels   sing  ! 
2 


1 8  CHRISTMAS   CAROLS. 

And  ye,  beneath  life's  crushing  load, 
Whose  forms  are  bending  low, 

Who  toil  along  the  climbing  way 
With  painful  steps  and   slow, 

Look  now  !   for  glad  and  golden  hours 
Come  swiftly  on  the  wing  ;  — 

Oh,  rest  beside  the  weary  road 
And  hear  the  angels  sing ! 

For  lo  !    the  days  are  hastening  on 

By  prophet   bards  foretold, 
When  with  the  ever  circling  years 

Comes  round  the  age  of  gold  ; 
When  Peace  shall  over  all  the  earth 

Its  ancient  splendors  fling, 
And  the  whole  world  give  back  the  song 

Which  now  the  angels  sing. 


II. 

ONE  MEDIATOR. 

(CHRISTMAS     EVE.) 

I   Timothy  ii.  6.     There  is  one  God  and  one  Mediator  be- 
tween God  a?id  men,  the  man  Christ  Jesns. 

r  I  ^HE  word  here  rendered  "Mediator"  means 
-■■  one  who  comes  between  two  parties,  and,  in 
the  more  specific  Christian  sense  of  the  word,  be- 
tween two  parties  to  reconcile  them  and  make  peace 
between  them.  It  presupposes  a  state  of  emnity 
and  warfare,  so  that  an  old  commentator  does  no 
more  than  justice  to  the  original  when  he  renders  — 
There  is  one  God,  and  one  peace-maker  between 
God  and  man. 

We  do  not  yet,  however,  come  to  the  full  thought 
of  the  original  word.  These  analogies  from  human 
affairs  only  help  us  a  little  to  climb  up  to  the  great 
doctrine  involved.  A  man  who  goes  between  two 
hostile  armies  and  negotiates  a  peace,  represents 
very  dimly  and  remotely  the  Divine  Mediation  in 
Jesus  Christ.  On  the  Divine  side  this  does  not 
represent  the  fact  at  all.  For  God  has  no  hostility 
towards  his  creatures  ;  the  enmity  is  all  on  one  side, 


20  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

and  the  fearful  chasm  and  antagonism  between  the 
Divine  nature  and  human  nature  do  not  require  any 
treaty-making  or  going  between,  that  God  may 
understand  us,  and  be  made  placable  towards  us. 
The  thing  needed  is  not  an  arbitrator  to  settle  dis- 
puted points,  but  a  channel  rather  through  which 
the  Divine  life  and  energy  can  flow.  Suppose  this 
Mediator,  then,  not  merely  to  come  between  the  two 
parties,  but  to  embody  the  whole  spirit  and  moral 
power  of  the  rightful  one,  —  that  these  possess  Him, 
and  clothe  Him  with  their  majesty  and  grace,  —  that 
thus  He  comes  to  the  hostile  party  on  their  own 
ground  and  among  their  own  camp-fires,  and  dis- 
solves their  hatred  beneath  the  touches  of  his  own 
spirit,  and  that  then  they  throw  down  their  arms  and 
strike  their  banners  and  say  we  are  reconciled  and 
we  will  rebel  no  more.  This  will  give  more  com- 
pletely the  burden  of  the  text,  "there  is  one  God 
and  one  Peace-maker  between  God  and  man."  He 
is  peace-maker  in  that  he  opens  between  both  the 
streams  and  courses  through  which  the  Divine  Peace 
flows  to  man  and  reconciles  him,  so  to  say,  under  the 
Omnipotence  of  the  Divine  Love. 

The  prime  necessity  of  a  Mediator  is  not  because 
God  needs  to  be  appeased  or  reconciled,  but  because 
He  does  require  means  and  instrumentalities  to  reach 
the  lowest  of  his  children.  Think  of  the  distance 
between  the  Infinite  God  and  finite  and  feeble  man ! 
He  cannot  come  to  us  in  his  unveiled  and  eternal 


ONE  MEDIATOR.  21 

essence,  for  then  we  should  drop  senseless  into  the 
deeps  of  his  own  absolute  Being.  So  He  veils  that 
essence  and  accommodates  it  to  the  state  of  all  the 
creatures  He  has  made.  It  were  not  enough,  again, 
that  God  come  to  us  through  the  motions  of  his 
Spirit  within  us.  We  are  sinful,  sensuous,  dark,  lia- 
ble all  the  while  to  mistake  God's  motions  within  us, 
in  our  own  noxious,  smouldering  passions.  There 
must  be,  then,  not  only  the  light  within  —  there  must 
also  be  the  light  without  and  above  ;  there  must  be 
the  objective  manifestation  of  the  Deity. 

But  observe,  again,  what  an  emphasis  Paul  lays  on 
this  oneness  of  the  mediatorial  office.  There  can  be 
only  one  mediator  even  as  there  can  be  only  one 
God.  Indeed  he  puts  one  as  the  correlate  of  the 
other.  For  he  means  to  say,  There  is  only  one  God 
and  only  one  peace-maker  between  God  and  man. 
How  and  why  this  is  so  we  shall  see  by  drawing  out 
the  three  propositions  involved  in  the  text,  and  see 
at  the  same  time  the  amplitude  and  grandeur  of  this 
fundamental  truth  of  the  New  Testament. 

There  must  be  one  mediator. 

And  he  must  be  a  man. 

And  a  man  in  the  supreme  sense  —  the  man 
Christ  Jesus. 

There  is  only  one  —  but  why  not  ?  Why  not 
make  all  things  the  media  through  which  God  comes 
to  man,  —  all  nature,  all  good  men,  all  spirits  and 
angels  ?     Is  not  the  whole  universe  a  system  of  me- 


22  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

diation  through  which  God  seeks  to  impart  Himself 
to  his  children  ?  Does  He  not  come  in  the  spring- 
time, in  the  May-flowers  that  open  their  eyes  upon 
us  out  of  his  own  gentleness  and  beauty  ?  And  does 
He  not  speak  out  of  his  majesty  in  the  thunder  and 
the  storm  ?  Does  He  not  come  to  us  out  of  every 
pure  heart  and  all  pure  lips  that  have  a  gospel  to 
tell  us  ?  And  does  He  not  come  in  the  angels  that 
guard  us  and  encamp  round  about  us  ? 

Yes  ;  but  does  He  come  in  these  or  in  all  together 
in  the  sense  asserted  by  the  text  ;  not  only  as  medi- 
ators, but  as  peace-givers  ?  Are  these  the  channels 
through  which  the  Divine  Peace-giver  comes  in  to 
wash  the  cells  of  the  heart  and  cool  the  fever  of  heart 
and  brain.  That  nature  is  no  such  mediation  as 
this,  is  obvious  enough  if  you  will  look  at  the  facts 
of  the  case  and  not  take  the  dreams  of  sentimental- 
ists for  realities.  Nature  is  no  direct  and  perfect 
medium  of  the  Divine  character  and  essence.  It  is 
an  exhibition  to  us,  doubtless,  in  a  lower  degree  of 
God's  ideals  of  the  good,  the  perfect,  and  the  fair, 
but  an  exhibition  as  well  of  the  condition  and  moods 
of  sinful  and  imperfect  men.  All  that  man  is  casts 
its  shadow  on  the  dial-plate  of  nature,  —  a  shadow 
sometimes  most  portentous  and  baleful.  Convul- 
sions, storms,  deformities,  miasmas,  disease,  death, 
corruption,  —  these  are  all  involved  in  the  processes 
of  nature,  these  come  in  as  contrasts  to  the  peace 
and  the  paler  beauty  which  are  also  there.     Nature 


OXE   MEDIATOR.  23 

is  the  thought  of  God,  say  some  of  the  scientists. 
But  God's  thought  about  what,  and  under  what  con- 
ditions ? 

It  is  God's  thought  obscured  and  dimmed  and  in- 
verted sometimes  ere  it  gets  to  its  ultimations  in  the 
material  universe.  Do  you  suppose  He  would  create 
the  wolves,  the  tigers,  the  vermin,  and  the  reptiles, 
the  noisome  things  that  swarm  into  life,  as  the  exhi- 
bition of  his  thoughts  ?  Even  the  clear  skies  with 
drought  and  frost,  May  mornings  with  east  winds, 
winter  with  its  damps  and  chills,  are  hardly  the 
supreme  beauty  unveiled  and  clear,  but  struggling 
rather  through  media  that  obscure  it.  Any  one  of 
you  can  imagine  a  fairer  nature  than  the  one  we 
have.  Everything  indicates  that  nature  in  its  com- 
pleteness is  not  so  much  the  highest  ideal  of  God  as 
the  reflection  and  representation  of  man,  —  all  that  is 
good  in  him  and  all  that  is  bad  copied  out  of  him  ; 
both  heaven  and  hell  painted  on  the  canvas  that 
hangs  around  him,  and  showing  him  the  grace  and 
sweetness  of  the  one  and  the  deformities  and  storm- 
ful  agencies  of  the  other.  Hence  nature  alone,  since 
the  world  began,  never  has  been  any  such  mediation 
as  yields  God  to  man  in  his  supreme  perfections,  but 
dimmed  by  the  medium  itself. 

I  should  follow  precisely  the  same  line  of  argument 
touching  the  mediation  of  good  men.  None  are 
good  enough  to  stand  between  me  and  the  supreme 
excellency  without  refracting  it,  or,  worse  yet,  cast- 


24  SERMONS  AND  SOATGS. 

ing  their  shadow  instead  of  transmitting  the  light. 
Saints,  philanthropists,  and  martyrs  are  mediators  to 
us  in  a  quite  inferior  sense,  and  as  such  we  thank 
God  that  He  raises  them  up.  They  come  between 
God  and  the  fallen  and  the  lost ;  they  bring  precious 
gifts  from  Him  ;  they  bring  kindly  sympathies,  holy 
charities,  words  of  cheer.  The  Divine  Grace  some- 
times gets  reflected  from  them  in  its  sweeter  charms. 
But  they  too  are  sinful  like  you  and  me,  and  they 
are  no  such  peace-makers  between  God  and  the  sin- 
ner as  the  text  describes.  They  are  no  such  chan- 
nels as  God  yields  Himself  through,  in  the  tidal 
fullness  of  his  renewing  love.  They  have  struggled 
with  sin  like  the  rest  of  us,  and  are  struggling  yet ; 
yea,  they  have  felt  precisely  the  need  which  the  text 
indicates  —  and  they  feel  it  now  —  the  need  of  one 
peace-maker  between  God  and  man,  through  whom 
the  Divine  peace  itself  shall  come  like  a  river 
and  make  human  nature  at  one  with  the  Divine. 
There  is  the  mediation  of  angels,  the  "  cloud  of  wit- 
nesses "  I  have  just  described,  the  heavens  that  bend 
near  us  and  out  of  which  the  heavenly  peace  comes 
down  into  our  hearts.  But  at  the  head  of  this  wit- 
ness-train, as  you  remember,  is  "  Jesus  the  Media- 
tor of  the  new  covenant,"  made  objectively  to  the 
Church  and  the  world  the  revelation  of  the  Divine 
attributes  and  the  impersonation  of  the  eternal  love 
so  that  the  ministry  of  angels  is  in  no  danger  of 
becoming  a  mere  spiritism  taking  sides  with  our  sel- 


ONE   MEDIATOR.  2$ 

fish  passions  or  wildering  fancies,  but  is  merged  and 
included  in  the  higher  and  broader  ministries  of  the 
Son  of  God. 

Only  one  mediator,  and  he  is  human.  And  why 
must  he  be  a  man  ?  Simply  because  God  is  human 
and  nothing  else  than  humanity  can  transmit  Him  as 
He  is.  This  grand  truth  of  the  humanity  of  God, 
rightly  discriminated  and  apprehended,  is  one  of  the 
most  precious  and  vital  in  all  the  treasury  of  the 
Gospel.  It  is  opposed  to  two  specious  and  besetting 
errors,  that  God  is  an  impassive  force  somewhere  at 
the  centre  of  things,  whence  this  great  mechanism 
of  worlds  grew  out  by  spontaneous  evolution,  —  and 
it  is  opposed  to  the  more  hideous  notion  that  He  is 
an  arbitrary  sovereign.  In  the  place  of  either  it 
brings  out  the  doctrine  that  God  is  a  being  who  like 
us  has  feelings,  desires,  yearnings,  yea  wants,  for  He 
wants  to  impart  his  own  peace,  and  gain  from  his 
creatures  some  returns  for  his  infinite  love.  Open 
your  Bible  and  see  how  directly  you  are  drawn  away 
from  the  old  stoicism  that  God  reposes  on  the  peaks 
of  eternity  cold  and  serene,  leaving  the  world  with 
their  mean  affairs  to  inferior  deities.  In  the  Bible 
we  read  of  Divine  humanities,  Divine  griefs  and 
sorrows,  as  if  the  Divine  sympathies  ran  down 
through  all  sensitive  beings  and  felt  every  pulse  of 
woe  in  his  universe.  I  cannot  see  the  Scripture  or 
the  reason  of  the  proposition  which  some  of  our 
theologians  have  striven  to  make  good  —  that  God 


26  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

is  incapable  of  suffering.  As  if  that  were  perfection  ! 
What  would  you  think  of  a  man  who  sought  to  be- 
come perfect  by  becoming  impassive  and  turning 
himself  into  stone  ?  As  man  becomes  better  and 
more  godlike  he  becomes  more  susceptible  to  the 
sorrows  of  his  fellows,  and  makes  their  griefs  his 
griefs,  and  in  this  very  susceptibility  he  ascends  to 
a  bliss  altogether  more  sacred  and  plenary  than  these 
men  of  wood  and  granite,  that  never  suffer  at  all. 
And  whence  does  all  this  susceptibility  come  to  us  ? 
It  comes  out  of  the  heart  of  God.  It  is  a  trait  of 
the  Divine  Nature  transcribed  into  man.  It  tells  us 
that  there  are  sufferings  which  are  Divine ;  and  that 
the  more  our  natures  become  open  to  them  the 
more  we  become  changed  into  the  likeness  of  our 
glorious  original.  Thus  we  speak  of  the  Divine 
Compassion,  and  that  means  suffering  with  another, 
so  that  in  our  spontaneous  speech  we  belie  our 
wretched  pagan  theologies.  And  as  if  description 
by  words  were  not  enough,  St.  John  in  apocalyptic 
vision  looks  away  up  to  the  throne  of  God  and 
what  does  he  see  there  ?  Not  an  arbitrary  sov- 
ereign clothed  in  pomp  and  terror,  not  the  light- 
nings out  of  the  storm-clouds,  not  the  show  of  mag- 
nificence affected  by  earthly  sovereigns  —  but  right 
in  the  midst  of  the  throne,  as  it  were  getting 
sight  of  the  Heart  of  God,  a  lamb  as  it  had  beeji 
slain  —  the  wounded  love  of  the  Creator  himself,  as 
if  there  was  a  Calvary  not  in    Palestine   alone   but 


ONE  MEDIATOR.  2*] 

away  in  the  Heart  of  God,  where  we  crucify  Him  by 
our  disobedience  every  day. 

This  being  so,  how  plain  it  becomes  that  only 
Humanity  can  mediate  between  man  and  the  Divine 
Essence.  Nature  is  competent  to  evolve  his  power 
and  magnificence ;  we  feel  that  sensibly  enough 
when  she  crushes  us  like  insects  out  of  her  way,  or 
brushes  us  by  the  hundred  into  her  great  gulf- 
stream,  but  in  all  her  gamut  she  has  not  a  single 
tone  that  is  human  or  which  can  give  us  one  lisp  of 
the  humanity  of  God.  Nature  in  her  impotency  and 
her  failure,  man  in  his  most  urgent  wants,  point  alike 
to  this  grand  necessity,  that  there  shall  be  a  media- 
tor, and  that  that  mediator  shall  be  a  man. 

And  not  any  or  every  man,  but  the  man  Christ 
Jesus  ;  a  man  whose  nature  opens  both  ways  —  up 
to  God  on  the  Divine  side,  and  down  to  the  lowest 
of  us  on  the  human ;  not  some  tall  angel  talking  to 
us  from  a  distance  out  of  the  porches  of  heaven,  but 
some  one  clothed  in  our  nature,  touching  the  earth 
in  its  lowest  place  of  evil  and  darkness,  and  at  the 
same  time  touching  the  inmost  heaven  where  all  the 
Divine  scenery  lay  upon  his  soul  ;  not  sinful  human- 
ity, that  cuts  off  the  light  rather  than  transmits  it,  but 
one  supremely  perfect,  through  whose  translucency 
the  whole  Divine  Nature  is  imaged  forth.  "  Be- 
lievest  thou  not  that  I  am  in  the  Father  and  the 
Father  in  me  ?  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you  I 
speak  not  of  myself,  but  the  Father  that  dwelleth  in 


28  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

me  He  doeth  the  works."  "  I  in  them  and  they  in  me, 
that  they  also  may  be  made  perfect  in  one,  and  that 
the  world  may  know  that  thou  hast  sent  me."  "  All 
things  are  delivered  unto  me  of  my  Father,  and  no 
man  knoweth  the  Son  but  the  Father,  neither  know- 
eth  any  man  the  Father  save  the  Son  and  he  to 
whomsoever  the  Son  will  reveal  Him.  Come  unto 
me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden  and  I  will 
give  you  rest."  These  proofs  and  illustrations  show 
yet  more  openly  the  Divine  burden  of  truth  which 
the  text  brings  home  to  us,  —  one  God  and  one 
peace-maker  between  God  and  men,  the  man  Christ 
Jesus. 

And  what  is  the  peace  from  God  which  comes 
through  this  mediation  ? 

First  we  say,  peace  of  mind,  rest  from  those 
tossings  of  controversy  for  which  there  is  no  umpire 
or  final  appeal.  "  Ye  call  me  Master  and  Lord,  and 
ye  say  well,  for  so  I  am."  Human  reason,  after  its 
guessings  and  roamings  from  sect  to  sect,  yearns  for 
a  Lord  and  a  Master,  not  to  crush  it  down  but  to 
take  it  up,  weak,  bewildered,  and  weary,  and  fold  it  in 
that  Divine  Reason  whence  alone  it  borrows  vigor 
and  illumination.  Here  is  rest  from  the  trials  of 
faith,  peace  from  the  j  anglings  of  sect,  assurance 
after  the  twilight  gleams  of  our  own  intuitions.  If 
you  have  been  through  the  circuit  of  guess-work 
after  truth,  and  like  the  man  lost  in  boundless  woods, 
come  back  at  evening  to  the  spot  you  left  in    the 


ONE  MEDIATOR.  29 

morning,  you  will  find  how  sweet  is  the  intellectual 
repose  in  the  Reason  of  God  or  the  Word  made  flesh. 
"  I  have  wandered  long  and  far,"  says  one  of  these 
men,  "  but  have  not  found  the  rest  which  you  say  is 
to  be  obtained.  I  have  interrogated  my  own  soul, 
but  it  answers  not.  I  have  gazed  upon  nature,  but  its 
many  voices  speak  no  articulate  language  to  me  ;  and 
more  especially  when  I  gaze  on  the  bright  page  of  the 
midnight  heavens,  those  orbs  gleam  upon  me  with  so 
cold  a  light  and  amid  a  silence  so  portentous,  that 
I  am  terrified  with  the  spectacle  of  the  infinite 
solitude."  To  the  intellect  weary  with  its  wander- 
ings, and  with  no  God-ward  determinations,  appeals 
the  doctrine  of  one  God  and  one  peace-maker  be- 
tween God  and  man.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that 
repose  in  the  Christian  atonement,  or  faith  in  the 
Christian  revelation,  forbids  or  supersedes  investiga- 
tion, doubt,  denial,  and  the  most  careful  balancing  of 
evidence.  No  ;  doubt  if  you  must,  deny  if  you  must, 
weigh  the  arguments  in  the  nicest  intellectual  scales. 
The  clearest  affirmation  comes  after  doubt ;  but  alas 
for  the  inquiries  that  end  in  nothing ;  alas  for  the 
search  after  truth  that  goes  down  in  darkness  ;  alas 
for  the  gropings  after  God  that  diverge  away  from 
Him  till  He  is  out  of  sight  and  out  of  hearing  ;  and 
because  the  greatest  and  best  minds  in  all  the 
Christian  centuries  have  used  the  highest  faculties 
of  reason  and  investigation  till  doubt  has  melted 
away  in  the  broader  illuminations  of  the  Word,  I 


30  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

urge  with  renewed  confidence  the  claim  of  the  one 
peace-maker  between  God  and  men. 

Peace  to  the  heart  consumed  with  its  fevers,  lac- 
erated with  its  passions,  wounded  in  its  deepest 
sympathies  and  affections,  tainted  with  the  poison  of 
self-love,  till  touched  and  pervaded  with  the  love  of 
God.  And  it  is  not  touched  and  pervaded  with  the 
love  of  God  while  He  is  far  off  in  the  eternal  abyss ; 
or  a  sovereign  enforcing  arbitrary  decrees  only  for 
his  own  solitary  glory.  But  through  this  mediation 
He  does  open  the  channels  for  our  hearts  to  go  up 
to  Him  and  the  Divine  heart  to  throb  down  to  us 
and  fill  this  great  chasm  in  the  soul,  this  want  of 
some  object  worthy  of  its  immortal  desires  and  end- 
less aspirations. 

Peace  to  the  conscience.  What  anxiety,  what 
weariness  in  endless  self -analysis,  in  always  looking 
into  ourselves  ;  in  trying  to  take  ourselves  to  pieces 
and  put  ourselves  together  again  as  they  do  watches 
that  will  not  keep  time.  This  is  what  some  people 
call  self-culture,  and  it  is  a  kind  of  culture  which  too 
much  followed  is  sure  to  end  in  self-bewilderments 
and  self-disgusts.  How  unsatisfying  this  kind  of 
self-culture,  at  least  to  a  spiritual  nature  quick  and 
intuitive  !  Do  your  best,  and  it  is  not  God's  best, 
and  the  accuser  has  you  in  his  eye  and  follows  you 
with  equal  steps  and  corners  you  up  and  goads  and 
worries  you.  Acting  from  ourselves  only  we  do 
nothing  that  satisfies  us  and  always  carry  about  the 


ONE   MEDIATOR.  3  I 

burden  of  a  tormenting  self-consciousness.  And 
you  rest  from  this  by  passing  over  through  the 
Christ  to  Him  who  takes  the  work  upon  Himself  in 
the  sovereign  mouldings  of  the  Divine  grace. 

Peace  after  storms  ;  for  in  the  one  Mediator  are 
solved  those  mysteries  of  life  and  death  that  perplex 
and  trouble  us.  For  He  turns  upon  them  the  light 
of  immortality  and  shows  the  end  they  are  working 
out ;  and  seen  thus  they  are  like  the  crests  of  the 
waves  when  kissed  by  the  breaking  sunbeams  and 
sinking  into  calm.  And  so  for  the  mind  and  the 
heart  and  the  conscience,  and  for  the  events  that 
bear  us  onward,  "  There  is  one  peace-maker  be- 
tween God  and  men  —  the  man  Christ  Jesus." 


CHRISTMAS    SONG. 

Calm  on  the  listening  ear  of  night 

Come  heaven's  melodious  strains, 
Where  wild  Judaea  stretches  forth 

Her  silver  mantled  plains  ; 
Celestial  choirs  from  courts  above 

Shed  sacred  glories  there, 
And  angels,  with  their  sparkling  lyres, 

Make  music  on  the  air. 

The  answering  hills  of  Palestine 

Send  back  the  glad  reply, 
And  greet  from  all  their  holy  heights 

The  Day-Spring  from  on  high  ; 
O'er  the  blue  depths  of  Galilee, 

There  comes  a  holier  calm, 
And  Sharon  waves,  in  solemn  praise, 

Her  silent  groves  of  palm. 

"  Glory  to  God  !  "     The  lofty  strain 
The  realm  of  ether  fills, 
How  sweeps  the  song  of  solemn  joy 
O'er  Judah's  sacred  hills  ! 
"Glory  to  God  !  "     The  sounding  skies 

Loud  with  their  anthems  ring, 

"  Peace  on  the  earth  ;  good  will  to  men 

From  heaven's  Eternal  Kin^." 


34  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

Light  on  thy  hills,  Jerusalem  ! 

The  Saviour  now  is  born, 
And  bright  on  Bethlehem's  joyous  plains 

Breaks  the  first  Christmas  morn, 
And  brightly  on  Moriah's  brow 

Crowned  with  her  temple  spires, 
Which  first  proclaim  the  new-born  light, 

Clothed  with  its  orient  fires. 

This  day  shall  Christian  tongues  be  mute, 

And  Christian  hearts  be  cold  ? 
Oh,  catch  the  anthem  that  from  heaven 

O'er  Judah's  mountains  rolled, 
When  burst  upon  that  listening  night 
The  high  and  solemn  lay  : 
"  Glory  to  God,  on  earth  be  peace," 
Salvation  comes  to-day ! 


III. 

THE  WILL-POWER. 

(a  sermon  in  lent.) 
Luke  xxii.  42.     Not  my  will  but  thine. 

THE  days  preceding  the  crucifixion  of  Christ 
were  the  season  during  which  He  walked  in 
the  shadow  of  death.  The  shadow  began  to  fold 
Him  in  as  He  came  down  from  the  Mount  of  Trans- 
figuration ;  and  soon  after  commenced  his  last 
journey  to  Jerusalem.  The  whole  twelve  are  with 
Him  now,  and  He  announces  to  them  plainly  that 
He  is  going  up  to  be  crucified.  They  fall  behind  in 
amazement  and  fear,  for  the  dread  shadow  comes 
over  them  now  for  the  first  time.  Gethsemane,  how- 
ever, is  the  place  where  the  shadow  falls  thick  and 
heavy.  Unbelievers  are  fond  of  contrasting  the  an- 
guish of  Jesus  at  this  time  with  the  bravery  and 
firmness  with  which  other  martrys  have  met  the 
same  extremity.  They  little  know  through  what 
struggle  those  other  martyrs  emerged  into  the  light. 
It  is  not  merely  the  shadow  of  physical  death  that 
falls  upon  Jesus  now.  The  scene  in  Gethsemane 
gives  us  a  view  of  that  struggle  in  its  final  consum- 


36  SERMONS  AXD  SOXGS. 

mation  which  takes  place  in  all  good  men  who  get 
the  victory,  and  which  is  intense  and  profound  in  all 
natures  which  are  themselves  profound  and  great. 
Small  or  shallow  natures  know  little  or  nothing  about 
it.  But  in  great  ones  there  is  a  descent  into  the 
depths  of  weakness  ere  there  is  a  rise  to  the  sub- 
limest  heights  of  power.  You  must  look  a  little 
farther  on  if  you  would  see  of  what  all  this  scene  in 
Gethsemane  was  the  preparation  and  the  prelude. 
Afterward  He  says,  "  All  power  is  given  me  both  in 
heaven  and  on  the  earth."  And  again,  "  O  fools  and 
slow  of  heart  to  believe  ;  ought  not  Christ  to  have 
suffered  these  things  and  to  enter  into  his  glory  ? " 
Weakness,  prostration,  prone  on  the  earth  to  the 
verge  of  annihilation  —  this  is  the  scene  in  Geth- 
semane. Power  described  in  terms  of  exaltation 
and  omnipotence  —  this  is  the  scene  forty  days  af- 
terwards. 

These  days,  when  the  death-shadow  rested  upon 
the  Saviour,  the  older  churches  observe  as  the  days 
of  Lent,  and  we  are  in  the  midst  of  them  now.  In 
those  churches  they  are  days  of  fasting,  in  which  the 
usual  pleasures  of  life  are  postponed,  the  churches 
are  draped  in  mourning  and  dirges  are  sung  in  place 
of  anthems.  I  doubt  not  that  those  who  observe 
these  rites  in  good  faith,  are  helped  by  them  and 
brought  into  more  living  sympathy  with  a  suffering 
Redeemer.  What  we  need  supremely  is,  not  senti- 
ment, but  such  sympathy  with  Him  at  the  trial  hour 


THE   WILL-POWER.  37 

as  will  render  to  us  its  meaning,  so  that  the  same 
strength  shall  become  ours  in  the  time  of  need. 
This  is  all  gathered  up  and  expressed  in  the  prayer 
—  Not  as  I  will,  but  as  thou  wilt.  It  is  the  absorp- 
tion of  the  human  will  in  the  Divine,  and  for  this 
comes  down  the  strengthening  angel.  For  this  are 
all  our  Lenten  days  of  humiliation,  and  they  do 
nothing  for  us  except  as  the  prayer  goes  up  out  of 
our  weakness  and  gets  its  answer.  This,  however, 
leads  us  into  the  heart  of  a  .great  subject.  There 
are  two  phases  of  character  which  appear  under  the 
full  operation  of  the  Gospel  upon  the  human  heart. 
They  seem  at  first  inconsistent,  antagonistic,  and 
wholly  irreconcilable.  First,  there  is  weakness,  hu- 
mility, non-resistance,  turning  both  cheeks  to  the 
smiter  ;  what  seems  often  to  a  man  of  the  world 
pusilanimity  and  cowardice.  The  Gospel  requires  of 
him  who  receives  it  to  give  up  his  own  will.  Hence 
self-abasement,  humiliation,  and  self-surrender  are 
reckoned  among  the  Christian  virtues,  and  hence  the 
apparent  weakness  it  produces  as  the  lion-heart  is 
tamed  and  made  a  lamb. 

Then  again  the  Gospel  in  the  person  of  its  believ- 
ers is  mighty  and  aggressive  ;  and  one  man  clothed 
in  its  full  power  becomes  more  invincible  than  an 
army  with  banners.  Non-resistance,  weakness,  hu- 
miliation disappear,  and  a  single  man  or  a  single 
woman  becomes  so  strong  that  the  forces  of  an 
empire  may  beat  against  them  in  vain. 


38  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

Some  have  fixed  upon  one  of  these  phases  and 
some  the  other,  and  so  from  two  very  opposite 
stand-points  come  two  classes  of  objections  against 
the  practical  value  of  the  Christian  faith  and  con- 
fession. These  objections  are  as  old  as  the  writers 
of  the  second  century  who  assailed  the  Christian 
revelation,  and  they  are  as  new  as  the  disciples  of 
Carlyle  who  assail  it  still,  in  the  same  way.  Un- 
questionably, it  is  the  blending  of  these  apparent 
opposites  which  constitutes  the  highest  human  ex- 
cellence which  the  Gospel  aims  to  produce.  It  is 
Gethsemane  alongside  of  Ascension  Mount.  It  is 
the  complete  surrender  of  our  will-power  and  receiv- 
ing it  back  again  as  no  longer  ours.  The  subject 
expands  in  a  threefold  division. 

The  nature  of  this  will-power  ; 

Its  dangers  when  standing  alone  ; 

Its  sublime  resources  when  absorbed  in  the  will 
divine. 

I.  As  to  its  nature,  we  shall  not  get  much  help 
from  the  metaphysicians,  but  a  great  deal  of  light 
from  our  common  experience.  If  you  take  a  ball  of 
snow  and  toss  it  into  the  stream,  you  will  witness  a 
rapid  disintegration  of  the  mass.  It  grows  less  and 
less  till  it  assimilates  to  the  surrounding  substance 
and  disappears.  But  if  you  take  a  piece  of  quartz, 
and  throw  that  into  the  water,  you  observe  that  it 
sinks  clown  to  the  sandy  bottom  and  lies  there.  The 
waves  beat  over  it  year  after  year,  and  it  loses  no  whit 


THE    WILL-POWER.  39 

of  its  integrity,  but  remains  an  insoluble  element 
in  the  waves.  So  again,  plunge  one  person  into  the 
current  of  human  society,  and  you  will  see  by  and 
by  that  society  draws  out  of  him  all  that  was  pos- 
itive and  absorbs  it.  The  stream  washes  out  of  him 
all  his  individuality,  all  that  was  specially  his,  and 
dissolves  it  in  the  current.  His  opinions,  tastes, 
sentiments,  prejudices,  loves,  and  hates  are  assimi- 
lated and  merged  in  the  common  mass.  Put  an- 
other person  in  this  same  human  current,  and  he 
never  is  merged  in  it,  but  preserves  the  same  flinty 
outlines  amid  all  the  surgings  of  the  waves.  He  is 
himself  through  all  changes,  and  never  disintegrated 
by  the  current.  Now  these  contingencies  do  not 
depend  upon  our  intellect,  culture,  or  sensibility ; 
upon  any  amount  of  personal  acquirements  and  ac- 
complishments. A  man  may  have  all  these,  and 
yet  he  may  merge  them  in  the  current,  and  they 
may  all  play  to  its  motions.  It  depends  altogether 
upon  the  amount  of  will  which  he  possesses, 
whether  he  is  to  fall  into  the  stream  as  a  flint  or  a 
snow-flake ;  so  that  will  may  be  defined  as  the 
power  of  self -cohesion  —  that  which  preserves  a 
man's  peciilinm  amid  the  flux  and  reflux  of  society. 
A  very  weak  intellect  with  a  very  strong  will,  can 
preserve  a  man's  selfhood  entire  and  even  make 
it  cut  like  a  diamond  ;  and  there  may  be  a  weak  will 
and  an  intellect  like  Milton's  ;  yea,  like  one  of  Mil- 
ton's archangels,  and  yet  it  shall  lie  open  to  the  in- 


40  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

vasion  of  every  current,  and  be  washed  like  a 
feather  into  the  channel. 

Will,  then,  is  the  power  of  self-cohesion  ;  it  is  the 
power  of  resistance  to  the  changes  that  take  place 
outside  of  us.  This  extends  even  to  the  body. 
With  some  people  the  human  system  imbibes  dis- 
ease as  the  sponge  imbibes  water,  and  they  suck  in 
every  lurking  epidemic  from  the  poisoned  air.  Oth- 
ers have  the  power  of  throwing  it  off,  and  it  re- 
bounds from  them  as  water  does  from  an  oil  cover- 
ing. Dr.  Kane  was  an  invalid  who  travelled  for 
health,  and  up  in  the  ice  regions,  with  the  ther- 
mometer at  yo°  below  zero,  kept  off  the  cold  from 
the  seat  of  life,  while  stronger  men  were  yielding  to 
its  death-grasp.  It  is  always  the  will-people  —  those 
who  have  the  power  of  self-cohesion  in  largest  meas- 
ure, who  in  these  cases  are  apt  to  lead  a  charmed 
life  in  the  midst  of  death. 

It  is  the  will  that  makes  a  man  preeminently  what 
he  is.  It  is  the  power  that  sits  back  of  all  his  other 
powers  and  keeps  him  an  integer  in  the  currents  and 
whirls  of  life.  Keep  that  strong,  and  all  their  wash- 
ings cannot  even  smooth  off  the  edges  of  his  char- 
acter. Let  that  be  touched  with  weakness  and  he 
dissolves  at  once  into  the  elements,  and  ceases  to  be 
an  integral  force  in  the  universe.  And  here  it  is  — 
just  here,  that  the  Gospel  comes  and  lays  its  health- 
ful and  healing  hand.  For  if  the  will  is  gained, 
everything  else  is  gained.  If  that  be  lost,  every- 
thing is  lost. 


THE    WILL-POWER.  4 1 

II.  And  this  leads  us  on  to  the  second  topic  — 
What  are  its  dangers  and  perversions  when  left  to 
itself  and  standing  alone. 

Its  dangers  are  twofold.  And  the  first  is,  that  it 
degenerate  into  self-will  or  mere  wilfulness,  which 
is  one  of  the  worst  perversions  of  the  mere  natural 
mind.  It  is  manifest  in  two  ways.  It  shows  itself 
by  sticking  upon  non-essentials  while  it  leaves  out 
the  weightier  matters  of  the  law.  It  will  go  the 
whole  lengths  for  the  mint,  the  anise,  and  the 
cummin,  and  even  sacrifice  unto  these  justice,  mercy, 
and  faith.  It  would  go  to  the  stake  merely  to  have 
its  own  way  whether  right  or  wrong ;  and  people 
generally  talk  the  loudest  about  their  consciences 
when  they  only  mean  their  self-will.  Moreover, 
when  this  power  degenerates  into  wilfulness,  its 
demonstrations  are  always  those  of  passion  and  self- 
love,  and  even  on  the  side  of  right  it  attempts  to 
serve  the  altars  of  God  with  the  fires  of  hell.  A 
great  many  cases  of  martyrdom  which  men  praise, 
and  which  have  gone  into  the  calendar  of  saints,  will 
be  found,  I  think,  to  be  nothing  else  than  sheer  wil- 
fulness. No  Gethsemane  has  preceded  their  Cal- 
vary ;  no  descent  into  the  deeps  of  human  weak- 
ness ;  and  therefore  they  rise  no  higher  than  mere 
bravery,  wilful  endurance,  stoical  obstinacy,  and  dra- 
matic virtue  ;  not  to  the  sublime  heights  where  they 
reappear  in  the  clothings  of  Divine  Omnipotence. 

But  a  worse  danger  than  that  besets  this   power 


42  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

when  standing  alone,  and  that  is  that  it  be  broken 
down  and  destroyed.  Oh,  there  is  no  sadder  specta- 
cle in  this  world  than  that  of  a  man  whose  will  has 
been  broken  down  ;  who  sees  the  right,  who  desires 
to  follow  it,  and  yet  when  he  tries  to  do  it  finds  him- 
self weaker  than  an  infant  at  the  breast.  The  intel- 
lect may  be  clear,  and  the  sensibilities  may  be  alive, 
and  there  may  be  all  the  accomplishments  and 
adorning  graces  of  the  outward  man,  and  all  the  ties 
of  friendship  may  be  twined  about  him,  and  all  the 
motives  of  heaven  and  hell  may  lie  upon  him,  and 
yet  some  demon  has  touched  the  will  and  broken  it, 
and  it  is  as  if  the  mainspring  had  been  taken  out 
and  all  the  wheels  go  whirring  at  random.  There 
is  no  longer  any  self-cohesion  for  that  man.  He  is 
at  the  mercy  of  every  temptation  that  comes,  and 
"  his  limed  soul  when  struggling  to  be  free  is  more 
engaged."  "  I  have  a  large  fortune,"  said  a  man  to 
a  temperance  agent,  "  but  tell  me  how  I  can  pass 
that  dram-shop  without  going  in  and  I  will  give  you 
the  whole  of  it."  And  here  is  where  sin  does  its 
deadliest  mischief,  and  herein  lies  all  the  bondage  of 
evil  habit.  Every  repetition  of  the  sin  makes  the 
will  weaker,  till  finally  its  power  of  volition  is  gone 
forever. 

There  was  once  a  man  whose  intellect  was  bur- 
nished to  a  most  unwonted  brightness,  as  fervid  a 
genius  as  our  American  culture  ever  evolved.  But 
he  gave  himself  to  the  tempter  once  and  again,  and 


THE    WILL-POWER.  43 

before  he  knew  it  this  awful  power  of  will  was  drawn 
clean  out  of  him,  and  he  fell  and  lay  prone ;  and 
then  no  strengthening  angel  could  lift  him  up,  for 
there  was  nothing  to  take  hold  of.  He  fell,  and  the 
knell  that  sounded  over  him  was  like  his  own  song 
of  the  bells  :  — 

"  Iron  bells  ! 
Every  sound  that  floats 
From  the  rust  within  their  throats 

Is  a  groan." 

But  I  need  not  have  gone  so  far,  nor  have  recited 
an  extreme  case  like  this.  The  reason  everywhere 
why  virtue  is  so  feeble  is  because  the  will  is  weak 
and  wayward.  All  that  class  of  persons  that  halt 
between  Christ  and  the  world,  and  do  not  know  to 
whom  they  belong  themselves,  are  people  whose 
wills  have  been  demagnetized  and  hence  all  their 
weakness  and  inefficiency.  There  is  no  decision  in 
religion  where  this  is  the  case,  no  self-consecration 
to  duty,  but  a  passive  floating  along  as  circumstance 
or  accident  or  pleasure  may  direct  the  way.  They 
are  creatures  of  accident  or  creatures  of  society, 
for  the  sole  reason  that  the  will  is  weak ;  for  when 
the  will  is  weak  the  world  has  us  in  its  power,  and 
a  full  grown  manhood  or  womanhood  is  an  impossi- 
ble attainment. 

III.  All  the  dangers  I  have  described  we  avoid 
when  the  human  will  is  merged  and  lost  in  the 
Divine.     Two  things  are  essential  to  this,  the  sur- 


44  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

render  of  all  things,  and  receiving  them  back  again 
as  no  longer  ours.  The  former  is  the  hardest  thing 
the  Christian  has  to  do.  It  is  the  Gethsemane 
through  which  he  passes  on  his  way  to  Mount 
Ascension.  It  is  the  real  Lenten  season,  and  un- 
less his  forty  days'  fastings  betoken  this,  they  are 
nothing  but  dietary  rules,  and  will  be  followed  by 
no  Easter  morning.  I  fear  there  is  not  much  of 
this  giving  up  without  some  secret  reservations. 
These  secret  reservations  are  the  source  of  all  your 
halting  and  weakness.  One  person  has  some  indo- 
lent habit  to  indulge,  another  has  gains  accumulat- 
ing by  sinful  traffic  or  by  putting  things  the  best 
side  out ;  another  has  wordly  vanities  to  support, 
and  so  charity  and  mercy  must  beg  and  starve ; 
another  has  the  blandishments  of  private  friendship 
which  would  be  perilled  by  a  whole  confession  and 
consecration  ;  another  has  his  patrons  to  please,  and 
the  popular  will  which  he  must  court  and  follow 
after;  another. dreads  the  danger  of  non-conformity 
with  the  scribes  and  pharisees  ;  another  lives  only 
in  the  senses,  and  can  see  nothing  to  live  for  but 
animal  enjoyments,  and  no  soul  in  himself  or  any 
one  else  to  be  cared  for  and  saved  ;  and  so  these 
persons  do  not  cast  themselves  without  reserve 
upon  the  eternal  and  all-perfect  law.  But  when  my 
opinions,  my  pleasures,  my  gains,  my  righteousness, 
and  all  that  makes  up  my  personality  as  a  responsi- 
ble being,  are  brought   in   entire  surrender   to   the 


THE    WILL-POWER.  45 

Divine  will  and  then  received  back  again,  a  higher 
will  than  mine  sways  me  henceforth,  as  the  current 
sways  the  lily  on  its  bosom.  To  make  us  do  this 
the  whole  plan  of  Providence  is  arranged.  It  is  to 
break  down  wilfulness,  that  the  Divine  will-power 
may  take  its  place,  and  to  this  end  sometimes  He 
smites  us  blow  after  blow,  before  He  can  crush  it 
down.  Sometimes  it  takes  years  to  break  it,  and 
sometimes  like  an  anvil  it  grows  harder  under  the 
strokes.  Very  often  the  spirit  is  broken  when  the 
will  is  not  given  up  at  all.  Very  often,  too,  the  will 
is  weakly  given  up  to  a  fellow  mortal,  but  no  whit  of 
it  surrendered  to  God.  Very  often  it  yields  to  the 
tempter  when  it  will  not  yield  to  the  Lord,  and  be- 
comes weak  as  a  palsied  limb.  But  when  it  does 
yield  to  Him,  perfectly,  and  without  any  reserve, 
another  will  is  received  in  its  place.  It  is  not  mine, 
and  I  know  in  my  deepest  consciousness  that  it  is 
God  moved  into  the  soul,  and  seeking  to  be  realized 
in  all  my  speech  and  actions.  There  it  is  always 
present,  and  I  can  feel  its  motions  and  its  thrills  of 
pleasure  or  of  pain.  The  Christian  who  has  once 
given  up  all  things  and  received  them  back,  has  an 
experience  answering  somewhat  to  that  of  the  Mas- 
ter himself.  "All  thine  are  mine,  and  mine  are 
thine,  and  thou  art  glorified  in  them."  Two  things 
immediately  follow.  First,  wilfulness,  which  is  but 
a  poor  aping  of  conscientiousness,  immediately  dis- 
appears.    In  things  merely  personal  and  non-essen- 


46  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

tial,  we  can  be  as  pliant  and  yielding  as  a  little  child. 
And  here  comes  in  the  full  scope  and  exercise  of  all 
that  class  of  virtues  which  worldly  men  sometimes 
mistake  for  pusillanimity,  —  meekness,  gentleness, 
deference,  and  the  sweet  charities  and  amenities  of 
life.  These  come  as  the  manifestations  of  the  Divine 
within  us,  just  as  his  great  power  around  us  runs 
down  into  the  smallest  channels,  and  hangs  leaves 
and  blossoms  on  the  smallest  stems,  and  threads 
them  with  pencillings  finer  than  the  artist  can  copy. 
Hence  the  contradictions  of  the  Christian  charac- 
ter are  apparent  and  not  real.  Under  the  most  of 
yielding  and  gentleness  and  many-sidedness,  which 
the  Apostle  describes  as  "  all  things  to  all  men,"  the 
will-determinations  may  be  the  strongest  and  most 
absolute.  Wilfulness  runs  into  obstinacy  on  things 
indifferent.  The  will,  absorbed  in  the  Divine,  can 
yield  as  God  yields,  bending  to  occasions  and 
changes  with  myriad-minded  goodness,  because 
there  is  an  unchanging  purpose  within  the  whole. 
From  our  reception  of  the  Divine  will  we  bend  with 
gentle  adaptations  to  the  peace,  the  comfort,  and 
even  the  whims  and  caprices  of  our  fellows,  so  far 
as  the  unchanging  purpose  is  not  hurt  nor  compro- 
mised. But  within  the  non-essentialr  and  in  things 
that  pertain  to  justice,  mercy,  and  essential  truth,  we 
are  made  strong  in  God's  Omnipotence.  God  is 
omnipotent  in  and  through  us,  for  his  will  is  done 
on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.     Hence  the  Gospel  con- 


THE    WILL-POWER.  47 

trasts.  In  the  depths  of  humiliation,  "  Not  my  will 
but  thine ;  "  in  the  heights  of  exaltation,  "  All  power 
is  given  me  in  heaven  and  on  the  earth." 

There  is  only  one  remedy  for  those  whose  will  is 
wayward  or  whose  power  of  virtue  is  broken  down. 
Outward  props  will  not  avail.  Legal  restraints  and 
prudential  motives  will  not  avail.  These  have  been 
tried  again  and  again,  and  in  such  cases  always  in 
vain.  There  is  no  human  help  when  the  awful 
power  of  will  has  been  undermined,  except  as  human 
help  may  be  a  guide  to  something  higher  than  itself. 
But  there  is  Divine  help,  and  out  of  it  on  men  once 
lying  prone  and  helpless  have  been  wrought  the 
greatest  miracles  on  record.  Augustine  was  gone 
clean  down  in  vice  when  God  laid  hold  of  him  and 
lifted  him  up  and  put  a  new  will  into  him,  and  he 
stands  like  a  peak  of  granite  for  the  centuries  to  date 
from.  So  the  weakest  will  of  the  most  wayward 
among  you,  if  you  would  give  it  up  to  Him  without 
reservations,  would  be  returned  to  you  infrangible 
as  adamant.  But  to  gain  this  you  must  go  down 
with  Jesus  into  the  shades  of  Gethsemane,  and 
watch  with  Him  and  suffer  with  Him  where  self  lies 
prone  and  bleeding,  till  its  surrender  is  complete  and 
the  angel's  face  beams  through  the  shadows  from 
above.  And  then  the  shadows  of  the  Lenten  days 
are  fringed  already  with  the  Ascension  glories. 


PEACE,  BE  STILL. 

'T  is  not,  my  God,  thy  chastening  hand, 

'T  is  not  the  pain  I  bear, 
That  hangs  upon  my  drooping  heart 

This  heavy  load  of  care. 

But  myriads  move  on  winged  feet 

Made  swift  to  do  thy  will, 
While  thy  dread  silence  on  me  falls, 

Thy  mandate  —  Peace,  be  still. 

All  Nature's  harps,  in  endless  ranks, 
By  thy  sweet  breath  are  stirred  ; 

And  through  my  prison  windows  float 
The  sounds  of  breeze  and  bird. 

Then  up  and  up  through  golden  air, 
Beyond  Time's  ebb  and  flow, 

I  see  the  throngs,  who  cast  their  crowns, 
In  white  robes  bending  low. 

They  come  and  go  on  flashing  wings, 

For  all  thine  errands  fleet  ; 
While  here,  thy  hand  is  on  my  lips, 

Thy  chains  are  on  my  feet. 

Thus  from  my  bed  of  chronic  pain 
I  prayed  —  "  O  Lord,  how  long  !  " 

4 


50  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

Pining  to  reap  the  harvest  fields 
And  sing  the  harvest  song. 

And  in  the  hush  of  silence  falls 
This  answer  to  my  prayer,  — 
"  What  gave  those  throngs  their  flashing  wings, 
Whence  come  the  robes  they  wear  ? 

"  Ere  yet  by  word  or  deed  or  song 
Made  swift  to  do  my  will, 
They  learned  it  in  the  trial-hour 
Beneath  my —  Peace,  be  still ! 

"  And  He  who  walked  the  garden  shades 
The  best  beloved  Son, 
Prayed,  ere  the  strengthening  angel  came  — 
1  Thy  will,  not  mine,  be  done  ! '  " 


IV. 

CALVARY. 

(GOOD   FRIDAY.) 

John  xii.  32.  And  f,+if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will 
draw  all  men  unto  me.  This  He  said,  signifying  what 
death  He  should  die. 

r  I  "HE  fundamental  facts  on  which  the  whole 
■*■  Christian  system  rests  are  ranged  into  a  series  ; 
each  one  of  which  necessitates  all  the  rest.  The 
birth  of  Christ,  his  mission,  his  miracles,  his  death, 
his  resurrection,  his  ascension,  his  coming  again  as 
the  Paraclete,  will  be  found  so  connected  in  the  nar- 
ratives of  the  New  Testament  that  you  cannot  take 
out  one  without  impairing  the  significance  of  all. 
For  example,  if  you  regard  his  death  as  the  death  of 
any  other  man,  or  of  a  common  martyr,  his  resur- 
rection becomes  less  credible  and  significant  ;  and 
all  that  strain  of  prophecy  which  runs  through  his 
teachings,  forecasting  his  death  and  resurrection  as 
included  in  a  great  plan  of  human  salvation,  has  no 
meaning  at  all.  Hence  when  one  of  the  facts  of  this 
divine  series  has  been  expunged,  the  rest  are  pretty 
sure  to  follow  in  logical  order,  until  Christianity  is 
reduced   to  a  mere   system  of   natural   religion.     If 


52  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

Jesus  was  born  as  other  men,  why  should  He  not  die 
as  other  men  ;  and  if  He  died  as  other  men,  why 
should  not  his  resurrection  be  like  that  of  other  men, 
and  why  should  He  come  again  as  Spirit  and  Com- 
forter ?  But  let  all  these  facts  be  retained  and  their 
relation  to  each  other  studied  and  pondered,  and  it  is 
not  long  before  a  system  of  divine  truth  rises  on 
our  faith,  flinging  its  light  over  the  mysteries  of 
two  worlds  and  lighting  up  the  darkness  of  the 
grave. 

You  know  how  much  meaning  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment gathers  and  centres  about  the  cross  of  Christ. 
His  death  is  made  a  moral  and  spiritual  necessity  in 
the  Providence  of  God.  He  is  the  Lamb  slain  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world.  Hence  all  through  his 
ministry  Jesus  speaks  of  "  his  hour."  His  enemies 
were  powerless  to  touch  his  life  till  his  hour  had 
come.  And  when  his  hour  was  come  He  says,  "  For 
this  was  I  born  and  for  this  cause  came  I  into  the 
world."  And  again,  "  If  I  be  lifted  up,  I  will  draw 
all  men  unto  me." 

In  unfolding  so  great  a  subject  as  the  significance 
of  the  cross  of  Christ,  we  must  not  fall  into  the  error 
of  making  it  sole  and  exclusive  ;  as  if  the  whole 
work  of  redemption  were  concentrated  here.  In 
that  way  we  should  fling  disparagement  on  the  other 
facts  of  the  Gospel  history.  On  the  other  hand,  if 
we  may  enter  aright  into  the  meaning  of  this  great 
sacrifice,  all  those   other  facts  will   be  seen  in   the 


CALVARY.  53 

light  of  it,  and  the  whole  system  of  Christian  faith 
appear  in  new  consistency  and  beauty. 

I.  First,  then,  we  say,  that  the  cross  is  an  expres- 
sion out  of  profounder  depths  of  the  Divine  Love 
than  the  world  had  ever  known  before  or  since. 
The  Jew  only  saw  God  apart  and  alone  in  his  awful 
justice.  He  only  knew  God  set  over  against  man  in 
fearful  antagonism,  —  God  in  his  dazzling  holiness, 
man  in  his  sin  and  his  uncleanness  liable  to  be  in- 
vaded with  avenging  thunders.  No  human  wit 
would  have  imagined  the  way  in  which  this  fearful 
gulf  was  to  be  bridged  over.  The  idea  of  the  Divine 
coming  over  to  us  —  taking  upon  itself  our  human 
burdens  of  sin  and  suffering  —  would  have  entered 
into  no  human  scheme  of  reconciliation.  And  yet 
this  is  the  great  truth  daily  brought  home  to  us  in 
the  cross  of  Christ.  It  need  not  be  embarrassed  by 
any  subtile  questions  about  the  union  of  the  Father 
and  the  Son.  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave 
his  only  begotten  Son  ;  "  and  "  He  was  in  Him  recon- 
ciling the  world  unto  Himself."  The  Divine  Justice 
in  the  Christian  Gospel  becomes  simply  the  form  and 
aspect  of  the  Divine  Goodness,  moulding  it  and  keep- 
ing it  from  missing  its  mark.  Sacrifice  means  the 
giving  of  one's  self  away  for  the  good  of  others,  and 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ  is  called  "  complete  "  because 
nothing  was  kept  back,  and  it  is  doubly  significant 
because  the  love  of  the  Father  is  imaged  and  shown 
forth  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  Son.     The  Son  does  not 


54  SERMONS  AXD  SONGS. 

come  to  ward  off  the  Father's  wrath  or  deflect  his 
thunderbolts,  but  to  make  new  channels  through 
which  the  Father's  love  could  find  its  way  to  the 
hearts  of  men.  It  is  the  Divine  Love,  therefore, 
coming  into  the  world  anew  through  the  only 
begotten  Son,  —  love  which  delights  to  give  itself 
away,  stops  at  no  suffering,  but  sends  out  nerves 
into  every  one's  condition  and  draws  up  a  world's 
agony  into  its  own  heart.  Hence  while  it  is  capable 
of  the  heights  of  rapture  it  is  capable  also  of  the  in- 
finite depths  of  sorrow.  The  Divine  Compassion  as 
revealed  in  Jesus  becomes  altogether  personal,  and  if 
He  incarnates  and  represents  the  Divine  nature  as 
He  claims  to  do,  then  the  Father  is  not  an  awfully 
impassive  Being  away  off  beyond  the  stars,  but  a 
present  Redeemer  bearing  our  griefs  and  sorrows  on 
his  tenderest  feeling  every  hour.  You  have  looked, 
I  presume,  on  a  group  of  statuary  which  represents  a 
wife  kneeling  over  the  form  of  her  dead  soldier,  her 
countenance  raised  in  strange  blendings  of  raptured 
devotion  and  broken-hearted  anguish,  all  expressed 
in  the  prayer,  "  O  God  I  give  him  to  his  country 
and  to  thee."  These  images  of  finite  human  affec- 
tion will  give  us  some  conception  of  what  it  was  for 
the  Father  to  give  his  only  begotten  Son,  and  they 
will  make  it  very  easy  to  understand  why  the  sorrow 
folded  in  the  shadows  of  Gethsemane  appears  un- 
like the  sufferings  of  commom  martyrdom,  because 
it  gives  us  gleams  of  an  infinite  compassion  which 


CALVARY.  55 

has  taken  on  its  feeling  the  sins  and  sufferings  of  a 
race. 

What  a  scheme  of  salvation  we  should  have 
planned  out,  as  fitted  for  an  Almighty  Being  to 
adopt !  We  should  have  called  Him  down  from 
heaven,  probably  on  the  car  of  his  Omnipotence, 
slaying  the  wicked,  and  taking  up  the  saints  into 
Paradise.  That  was  the  Messiah  which  men  looked 
for,  and  which  some  look  for  yet.  And  yet  He  came 
concealing  his  glory,  holding  in  his  power,  sinking 
himself  in  our  condition,  hiding  himself  under  our 
poverty  and  wretchedness  out  of  tender  regard  for 
our  moral  freedom,  so  as  to  win  his  way  into  the 
soul  by  the  most  of  love  and  the  least  of  fear.  So 
then  the  cross  on  Calvary  shows  what  a  cross  there 
was  in  the  Divine  Love,  which  consented  to  hide 
its  power  but  to  halve  the  anguish,  in  order  to  find 
our  fallen  humanity  and  lift  it  up  to  the  Divine  Em- 
brace. 

II.  There  is  all  this  in  the  cross  of  Christ,  and  of 
consequence  there  is  another  truth  which  it  holds 
aloft,  and  which  it  preaches  every  day  to  the  world. 
It  is  the  depth  and  the  malignity  of  human  sinful- 
ness. There  is  only  one  step  in  the  argument 
which  shows  how  vast  is  the  moral  ruin  which  re- 
quires such  a  reconstruction  as  this.  If  you  say  sin 
is  only  a  superficial  matter  —  only  a  wrinkling  of 
the  rind  and  not  a  disease  that  lies  at  the  core  — 
you  will  easily  think  that  God  would  not  be  at  much 


56  SERMOXS  AXD   SOXGS. 

pains  about  it.  He  would  let  it  alone,  and  let  it 
work  itself  off  in  the  natural  unfoldings  of  our 
manhood,  just  as  the  bark  peels  off  in  the  growth 
of  the  tree.  And  then  to  accommodate  all  things 
to  such  a  conception,  you  will  discharge  Christianity 
of  all  its  supernatural  meaning.  The  blood  of  the 
covenant  is  a  common  thing,  and  the  death  of 
Christ  is  the  death  of  a  common  man.  And  then 
those  words,  Selfishness,  and  Hate,  and  Pride,  and 
Revenge,  and  Lust,  and  Cruelty,  and  love  of  Rule, 
which  enter  into  the  idea  of  sin,  and  make  it  up, 
will  not  express  to  you  evils  that  take  hold  of  the 
immortal  nature  and  blight  it.  They  only  mar  it 
a  little  on  the  outside,  will  pass  off  with  a  little 
more  development,  and  without  repentance  or  humil- 
iation. Restore  the  Gospel  to  its  integrity  and 
its  full  orbed  power,  and  how  vastly  different  do  all 
these  things  appear  !  Let  the  incarnation  be  indeed 
the  Word  made  flesh  ;  the  death  on  Calvary  not 
the  untimely  end  of  a  defeated  Jewish  Reformer, 
but  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  and  then  the  question  comes  home  at  once, 
What  eternal  interests  were  at  stake,  requiring  such 
a  descent  of  the  Divine  Love  into  the  depths  of  our 
human  woe  ?  We  shall  easily  see  that  it  was  no 
speck  on  the  surface  of  humanity,  but  a  plague-spot 
at  the  heart,  that  was  to  be  removed.  Would  all 
this  costly  sacrifice  be  made  —  this  gift  of  the  Son  of 
God  to  go  down  into  the   profound  of  sorrow  and 


CALVARY.  57 

suffering  —  merely  for  the  removal  of  some  super- 
ficial evil,  which  the  race  would  outgrow  of  itself, 
and  not  rather  of  one  that  lay  at  the  Heart,  like  a 
canker,  and  threatened  ruin  to  the  whole  ?  Not 
alone  then  the  depths  of  the  Divine  Love  for  man, 
but  the  depths  of  the  Divine  Hate  towards  sin  — 
the  only  thing  that  perils  his  eternal  peace,  is  shad- 
owed forth  on  Calvary,  and  makes  us  cease  to  won- 
der almost  at  the  darkness  that  came  down  and 
involved  the  sacrifice. 

There  is  something  which  delights  the  imagina- 
tion in  the  ministry  of  angels.  Through  the  old  dis- 
pensation they  led  on  the  chosen  people,  and  in  all 
ages  of  the  world  such  ministries  have  inspired  its 
childlike  faith.  So  they  might  have  come,  never 
putting  on  our  garments  of  mortality  ;  beckoning 
to  the  skies,  but  never  touching  the  earth  them- 
selves to  be  soiled  by  it.  So  it  might  have  been,  if 
men  only  needed  teaching  and  beckoning  upward. 
But  there  was  One  who  came  down  into  our  condi- 
tion, wrapped  the  garments  of  our  infancy  and  man- 
hood about  Him  that  He  might  be  put  in  communion 
therewith  and  thrill  them  with  life  and  energy  ;  and 
He  becomes  not  teacher  only,  but  Redeemer ;  not 
a  guide  merely  to  beckon,  but  a  Saviour  to  quicken 
and  regenerate ;  and  so  when  St.  John  draws  the 
veil  and  gives  us  gleams  of  the  ritual  of  heaven,  it 
is  of  one  who  has  helped  us  by  sharing  our  whole 
human  experience  that  He  might  adapt  the  Divine 


58  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

Help  to  it,  and  to  whom  worship  is  always  rendered 
under  the  symbol  of  suffering  and  sacrifice. 

It  is  a  doctrine,  you  know,  of  some  branches  of  the 
modern  Church,  that  God  himself  in  the  person  of 
Christ,  suffered  as  a  substitute  for  man,  and  so  his 
death  becomes  the  sole  condition  of  forgiveness. 
Do  not  denounce  the  doctrine  till  you  first  eliminate 
what  is  false  from  it,  and  then  take  home  the  truth  ; 
for  it  has  melted  the  iron  out  of  many  a  sinful  soul, 
and  given  it  peace  in  believing.  It  is  not  the  sup- 
posed commercial  transfer  of  our  sins  to  Christ,  and 
his  merits  to  us  that  gives  the  peace.  It  is  the 
thought  that  Christ  represents  here  the  infinite 
Mercy ;  that  God  himself  can  come  over  to  us,  and 
make  our  case  his  own  ;  that  He  so  hates  the  evil 
that  spreads  canker  through  the  tenderest  places 
of  the  heart,  that  He  will  take  the  burden  of  it  upon 
himself  ;  that  He  will  let  our  hardness  and  impeni- 
tence put  stabs  into  his  wounded  love  before  He 
will  let  us  go  ;  that  not  his  Fatherhood  alone,  on 
the  peaks  of  heaven,  but  his  humanity,  brought 
nigh  and  inserted  in  our  lowly  condition,  is  given 
in  sacrifice  for  us  every  hour  ;  it  is  this  that  will 
make  you  hate  your  sin,  if  anything  will,  and  let 
the  heart  melt  in  repentance,  and  the  Divine  Grace 
clear  its  stains  out  of  you  in  showers  of  effacing 
rain. 

III.  Again  we  look  to  the  cross  of  Christ  to  get 
some  just  estimate   of   the  worth   and  grandeur  of 


CALVAKY.  59 

human  nature.  We  are  very  apt  to  fall  into  mere 
declamation  on  this  head.  The  greatness  of  human 
nature  implies  a  twofold  capacity  —  susceptibilities 
for  progress  and  enjoyment,  and  susceptibilities  for 
degradation  and  suffering.  The  possible  heights  of 
its  exaltation  measure  the  possible  depths  of  its 
downfall.  Natures  that  are  small  and  narrow  and 
low  down,  have  these  susceptibilities  in  slight  de- 
gree. They  can  neither  rise  nor  sink  very  far.  But 
all  those  provisions  for  human  salvation  which  we 
call  supernatural,  are  so  many  testimonies  to  the 
endless  value  of  the  human  soul.  You  begin  to  see 
the  worth  of  a  thing  when  you  see  how  much  it 
costs  to  buy  it  or  redeem  it.  Seeing  only  the  sur- 
face of  men,  liable  only  to  physical  evils  and  physi- 
cal death,  all  the  supernatural  agencies  of  the  New 
Testament  are  utterly  incredible.  Would  God  come 
into  the  world  in  this  wise,  giving  over  such  a  Being 
as  Jesus  Christ  to  the  agonies  of  the  cross,  to  save 
an  insect  of  to-day  from  a  little  more  or  a  little  less 
of  physical  evil  ?  How  great  are  the  means  and  how 
insignificant  is  the  end  !  How  costly  the  price  and 
how  poor  in  comparison  is  the  thing  purchased  ! 
But  the  cross  proclaims  forever  that  physical  suffer- 
ing, even  in  the  person  of  God's  only  Son,  is  to  be 
reckoned  of  less  account,  where  a  spiritual  and 
eternal  good  can  be  achieved  by  it.  Expunge  the 
supernatural  from  Christianity,  make  its  Christ  a 
common    man,  and    his  cross  a  human  misfortune, 


60  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

and  we  tend  by  inevitable  logic  to  that  view  of  hu- 
man nature  which  merges  it  in  mere  animal  exist- 
ence. But  the  moment  we  understand  that  man 
neither  enjoys  nor  suffers  like  an  animal,  that  the 
pleasures  and  pains  of  sense  are  hardly  worthy  of  a 
moment's  thought,  compared  with  those  pleasures  or 
pains  that  are  to  fill  up  the  measure  of  its  capacities 
forever  ;  the  moment  we  understand  all  this,  the 
grand  array  of  means  provided  in  the  Christian 
Gospel  to  lift  man  up  and  save  him  become  the  log- 
ical necessities  of  the  Divine  Providence.  The 
mystery  of  the  cross  clears  away,  and  the  Great 
Sacrifice  is  no  waste  of  treasure  and  blood.  We 
wonder  not  that  the  heavens  should  bend  down  to 
the  earth,  and  break  into  its  affairs,  when  we  see  that 
this  world  with  all  its  trappings  could  not  be  given 
in  exchange  for  a  human  soul.  So  the  cross 
preaches  to  us  the  love  of  God  as  a  personal  love  ; 
the  depth  of  ruin  into  which  man  is  plunged  by 
sin  ;  and  the  worth  and  grandeur  of  human  nature 
in  its  unmeasured  capacities  for  rising  or  falling,  for 
bliss  or  for  suffering. 

IV.  But  there  is  another  truth  which  comes  home 
to  us  as  preached  by  the  cross  of  Christ.  It  clears 
away  the  mystery  of  death,  for  it  shows  death  as 
the  reverse  side  of  resurrection.  Death,  as  we  learn 
it  here,  is  not  an  isolated  fact  in  human  experience, 
and  resurrection  another  isolated  fact.  Death  is 
only  the  hither  side  of  one  great  fact  —  the  waning  of 


CALVARY.  6 1 

our  mortal  being,  that  the  immortal  being  may  have 
freedom  and  enlargement.  This  waxes  as  the  other 
wanes.  How  conspicuous  is  the  fact  in  the  last 
days  of  our  Saviour's  earthly  life  !  More  and  more 
does  the  mortal  body  appear  as  the  mere  foliage  of 
the  Divine  and  immortal  being,  the  foliage  lit  up 
with  wondrous  transfigurations  from  the  Divine  man 
within  who  could  not  be  touched  by  the  spear  and 
the  nails.  On  the  very  eve  of  crucifixion  —  speak- 
ing out  of  this  divine  consciousness  —  we  are  told, 
"  In  that  hour  Jesus  rejoiced  in  spirit  and  said,  Now 
is  the  Son  of  Man  glorified,  and  God  is  glorified  in 
Him."  That  has  always  seemed  to  me  an  instance 
of  the  highest  moral  sublime.  The  cross,  just  be- 
fore, but  the  way  to  "  the  glorification  of  the  Son  of 
Man."  And  what  a  light  from  this  Exemplar-  is 
flung  over  all  our  death-scenes  and  Gethsemanes, 
which  have  been  so  multiplied  of  late  and  sent  sor- 
row and  anguish  into  so  many  homes  !  Ties  must 
break  and  hearts  must  bleed  and  death  will  come  by 
sudden  violence  until  men  grow  wiser  and  better. 
At  the  same  time  let  the  light  that  streams  from  the 
cross  be  turned  full  upon  our  vales  of  sorrow  and 
our  Calvaries  of  suffering,  and  we  shall  remember 
that  death  is  only  the  hither  side  of  resurrection 
unto  life,  and  that  the  darkest  midnights  are  broken 
by  the  dawn  of  the  Easter  mornings. 

Men  pass  in  long  processions,  sometimes   in  ag- 
onized   groups    and    companies,    into    the   freezing 


62  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

shadows  of  night ;  and  how  many  a  heart  to-day  is 
broken  and  bleeding  because  its  treasures  have  been 
snatched  away  by  sudden  havoc  and  ruin.1  The 
cross  is  the  symbol  which  hangs  aloft  over  all  the 
wrecks  of  our  slaughtered  humanity  ;  the  symbol  of 
a  love  which  drew  all  that  havoc  and  agony  up  into 
its  own  experience,  in  order  to  show  it  the  reverse 
side  of  resurrection  and  immortality.  Our  human 
mortality  is  the  cloud  which  hangs  between  us  and 
the  glory  just  beyond  ;  the  cloud  thick  and  heavy 
until  the  Christ  turned  it  into  white  wreaths  which 
only  temper  to  our  condition  the  ardent  mercies 
of  the  Lord.  Such  is  the  fourfold  meaning  of  the 
cross  and  such  the  light  streaming  from  it  to-day. 

There  is  one  point  of  application  which  the  sub- 
ject urges  upon  you.  It  rebukes  our  sleepy  indif- 
ference and  dull  consciousness  of  the  powers  that 
slumber  within  us.  Would  that  we  might  see  the 
worth  of  human  nature  as  God  sees  it  who  has  ex- 
pended so  much  to  cleanse  and  save  it.  If  we  con- 
sidered the  vast  possibilities  for  good  or  evil,  for 
sorrow  or  joy,  which  are  wrapped  up  within  us  and 
are  slumbering  there  ;  there  could  be  no  such  thing 
as  religious  insensibility.  We  should  be  awake  to 
the  mighty  issues  of  this  probation  now  and  here. 
It  is  quite  conceivable    that  when  these   capacities 

1  This  sermon  was  preached  soon  after  one  of  the  most  fatal  steam- 
boat disasters. 


CALVARY.  63 

are  all  developed  and  filled  up,  having  cast  oft  the 
coverings  and  clogs  of  earth,  an  hour  of  suffering 
will  outweigh  all  its  physical  pains,  and  an  hour  of 
joy  all  its  earth-born  pleasures.  And  the  Son  of 
Man  is  lifted  up  not  by  his  death  alone,  yea  rather 
through  that  by  his  resurrection  and  coming  again 
in  Spirit  that  He  may  draw  you  to  himself.  For  not 
by  the  cross  is  He  lifted  up  as  an  object  for  our  pity- 
ing gaze,  but  by  this  He  is  raised  above  all  the  cen- 
turies to  his  place  of  power,  that  our  gaze  upon  Him 
by  an  act  of  faith  may  bring  healing  and  cleansing 
mercy. 


THE  TWISTED  THORN. 

Night  hath  shut  the  prisoner  in, 
Night  of  terror,  night  of  sin  : 
Vain  for  light  my  eyeballs  roll, 
Darkly  here  I  dwell  in  dole  ; 
On  my  couch  I  plain  and  mourn, 
Bleeding  with  the  twisted   thorn. 

What  arises  dark  and  still  ? 
Oh,  't  is  Calvary's  awful  hill  ! 
Lo,  the  drooping  sufferer  there  ! 
Lo,  the  unprevailing  prayer  ! 
Lo,  the  temples  pierced  and  torn, 
Bleeding  with  the  twisted  thorn  ! 

What  arises  clear  and  still  ? 
'T  is  Ascension's  sacred  hill  ! 
See  the  rifted  clouds  retire, 
Flaming  with  the  fleecy  fire, 
Through  them  see  a  form  upborne  - 
He  who  wore  the  twisted  thorn  ! 

What  is  that  I  see  afar  ? 

'T  is  the  blinking  of  a  star  ; 

'T  is  Orion  !  'tis  the  Sun  ! 

'T  is  the  Conqueror  coming  on, 

Riding  through  the  gates  of  Morn, 

He  who  wore  the  twisted  thorn. 


66  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

Look  ye  up  to  Calvary's  hill, 
Ye  who  bear  the  pains  of  ill  ; 
Look  ye  towards  Ascension  Mount, 
Ye  who  drink  the  bitter  fount ; 
Look  ye  towards  the  gates  of  Morn, 
Ye  who  wear  the  twisted  thorn  ! 


RESURRECTION  AND  ASCENSION. 

(EASTER.) 

Acts  i.  9.     While  they  beheld,  He  was  taken  up;  and  a  cloud 
received  Hi7ii  out  of  their  sight. 

LUKE,  beyond  all  reasonable  question,  is  the 
author  of  the  book  of  Acts,  and  he  reports  the 
scene  of  our  Saviour's  ascension  evidently  from  the 
testimony  of  eye-witnesses.  The  scene  as  described 
could  not  have  been  on  the  earth  but  beyond  the 
bourne  of  mortality.  It  was  in  the  spirit-world,  of 
which  for  the  time  these  disciples  had  open  cog- 
nizance ;  but  that  ceasing,  "  a  cloud  "  —  this  cloud 
of  mortality  —  hung  between  them  and  the  risen 
Saviour.  The  "  two  men  in  white  apparel,"  or  the 
angels  who  appear  upon  the  scene,  assure  the  aston- 
ished disciples  that  they  will  see  Jesus  come  again 
in  like  ma7iner  as  they  have  seen  Him  go  away. 
How  He  went  away  some  of  the  disciples  seem  not 
to  have  understood,  and  so  they  mistook  the  manner 
of  his  coming  again.  It  is  not  the  first  instance  in 
which  the  high  utterances  which  have  come  down 
out   of   heaven    have   been   taken   in   a   lower   and 


68  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

grosser  sense  than  that  in  which  they  were  made. 
From  these  and  similar  declarations  made  by  our 
Lord  himself  pertaining  to  his  second  coming,  prob- 
ably the  notion  originated  among  the  early  disciples, 
of  a  second  coming  of  Christ  upon  the  earth 
through  the  clouds  of  the  air. 

What  are  we  to  understand  by  the  ascension  of 
Christ  ?  Simply  and  only  his  resurrection  consum- 
mated and  complete.  It  cannot  be  necessary  to 
argue  with  any  rational  mind,  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment writers  do  not  mean  an  ascent  through  space 
into  the  sky.  They  mean  that  having  put  off  all  the 
remnants  of  mortality  which  clung  to  Him  from  the 
tomb,  He  ascended  into  the  sphere  of  celestial  and 
divine  being  which  mortal  eyes  cannot  look  upon, 
and  so  in  the  flesh  they  saw  Him  no  more.  Hence- 
forth He  will  appear  out  of  heaven  only  in  like  man- 
ner as  they  saw  Him  go  into  it. 

The  death  and  ascension,  or  complete  resurrection, 
of  Christ  are  the  two  facts  which  mainly  occupy  our 
attention  as  we  contemplate  the  closing  scenes  in  the 
life  of  Jesus.  One  is  the  human  and  finite,  the  other 
is  the  divine  side  of  that  wondrous  life.  We  are 
apt  to  get  a  very  narrow  view  of  these  two  facts  that 
very  much  tames  down  their  significance.  By  the 
death  of  Christ  is  not  meant  merely  his  expiration 
on  Calvary.  By  the  resurrection  and  ascension  are 
not  meant  merely  the  reanimation  of  the  corpse  in 
Joseph's  tomb,  much  less  going  up  into  the  air  from 


RESURRECTION  AND  ASCENSION  69 

Ascension  Mount.  By  no  means.  Bear  in  mind 
that  there  was  in  Him  the  union  of  our  tempted,  suf- 
fering, dying  humanity,  with  the  all-revealing  and  in- 
dwelling divinity.  At  first  the  suffering  human  nat- 
ure is  dominant  and  conspicuous.  He  is  a  man  of 
sorrows  ;  He  hath  not  where  to  lay  his  head ;  He 
bends  under  the  weight  of  temptation  that  lies 
against  Him  with  its  terrible  load.  But  within  all 
this  the  divinity  gleams,  at  first  faintly,  then  more 
openly,  then  with  transfiguring  power  and  splendor. 
This  waxes  and  the  other  wanes.  At  length  the 
mortal  suffering  nature  is  expelled  and  the  divine 
man  rises  clear  of  it  into  his  tranquil  and  unclouded 
noon.  In  the  first  stages  a  man  of  sorrows  and  ac- 
quainted with  grief.  In  the  last  stage  is  the  trium- 
phal strain,  "  All  power  is  given  me  in  heaven  and 
upon  the  earth." 

Now  we  observe  that  the  first  process  —  the  pass- 
ing away  of  the  encumbering  and  suffering  humanity, 
is  called  our  Lord's  death.  The  other  and  the  reverse 
process,  the  emergence  out  of  it  of  the  half-con- 
cealed Divinity  to  its  meridian  power,  is  called  the 
Lord's  ascension.  One  kept  time  with  the  other. 
That  was  a  daily  death  as  a  means  of  daily  rising, 
till  there  was  nothing  left  to  be  excluded,  and  the 
whole  Divine  man  ascends  before  us  and  above  us 
as  the  image  of  the  invisible  God. 

That  I  do  not  give  too  broad  a  rendering  to  these 
two  inverse  terms  of  the  Gospel  you  will  be  abun- 


yO  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

dantly  satisfied  if  you  examine  and  collate  the  pas- 
sages where  they  occur.  They  are  given  always  as 
the  exact  image  of  our  own  spiritual  progress  and 
enlargement.  We  rise  and  ascend  with  Him  only  as 
we  die  with  Him.  The  self-denials  and  the  conflicts 
which  He  calls  taking  up  the  cross  daily,  the  temp- 
tation scenes,  the  Gethsemanes  and  the  Calvary s 
alike  ;  these  are  included  under  this  term,  dying  with 
Christ.  And  then  the  lower,  the  tempted  nature, 
wanes  till  it  disappears,  and  the  angel-power  from 
within  unfolds  and  ascends  free  of  it ;  and  this  is 
rising  with  Christ. 

And  you  will  see,  I  think,  at  once  why  the  ascen- 
sion of  Christ  is  the  fact  which  lies  at  the  very  heart 
of  the  Gospel  and  is  the  hiding-place  of  its  power. 
For  it  was  only  by  his  ascension  that  He  came  spirit- 
ually to  his  Church  and  comes  to  it  now  in  showers 
of  grace  and  love.  And  you  will  see  the  poverty 
and  meagreness  of  the  theologies  which  gather  up 
the  chief  meaning  of  our  Saviour's  mission  in  those 
six  hours  of  physical  suffering.  Not  so  Paul.  "  If 
Christ  be  not  risen  your  faith  is  vain,  ye  are  yet  in 
your  sins."  And  he  announces  himself  a  witness  of 
this  rising.  But  how  a  witness  ?  He  never  saw 
Christ  in  the  flesh  that  we  know  of.  He  was  not  at 
the  tomb  that  great  Sabbath  morning.  He  met 
Christ  for  the  first  time,  on  his  way  to  Damascus, 
breaking  upon  him  out  of  the  glories  of  the  Syrian 
sky.     Such  being   the  broad    significance  of   these 


RESURRECTION  AND   ASCENSION  7 1 

two  leading  facts  of  the  Gospel  history,  let  us  now 
proceed  to  turn  the  light  of  the  great  truth  which  is 
here  involved  upon  our  own  lowly  and  suffering 
state.  For  the  great  Exemplar  is  placed  before  us 
to  fling  illustration  over  all  our  mortal  condition. 
Standing  on  Mount  Ascension  we  shall  see  revealed 
more  clearly  the  hopes  of  man  and  the  possibilities 
that  sleep  within  us.  If  we  are  planted  together  in 
the  likeness  of  his  death  we  shall  be  also  in  the  like- 
ness of  his  resurrection.  Death  and  ascension ! 
These  two  are  the  leading  facts  of  the  Christian 
probation  and  experience  as  we  follow  the  divine 
footsteps.  There  is  not  in  us  the  same  "fullness 
of  the  Godhead "  which  Christ  had,  but  there  is  in 
us  the  heavenly  man  clogged  and  concealed  under 
the  earthly,  and  one  waxes  as  the  other  wanes. 

I.  See  this  first  in  our  most  external  changes. 
You  observe  that  there  is  nothing  fixed  here,  and 
that  even  our  houses  and  homes  are  but  as  tents 
which  are  pitched  for  a  day  and  a  night  upon  the 
plain.  Now  you  will  find  generally  that  even  this 
economy  of  temporal  change  is  necessitated  by 
deeper  changes  and  growths  within  us.  We  build 
our  habitations  ;  we  gather  our  families  about  us  as 
the  nestling  places  of  our  affections  ;  nay,  even  the 
stones  and  the  trees  and  the  shrubbery  have  grown 
into  us  and  become  almost  a  part  of  our  being,  for 
the  heart's  tendrils  have  gone  out  and  laid  their 
clasp  upon  them  all.     It  seemed  at  first  that  we  were 


72  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

to  stay  there  in  one  place  forever.  But  we  find  at 
length  we  had  exhausted  all  it  had  to  give  us  as  a 
means  of  life's  work,  discipline  and  duty.  There  is 
a  growing  maladjustment  of  what  is  around  us  to 
what  is  within  us.  We  must  gird  up  ourselves  and 
rend  off  the  fastenings  of  the  heart,  and  the  former 
things  must  pass  away.  So  it  is  when  the  young 
man  shuts  off  the  scene  of  his  boyhood,  its  fields, 
brooks,  orchards,  and  groves,  for  a  new  plunge  into 
the  world.  So  it  is  when  the  young  woman  foregoes 
the  ties  of  girlhood  for  a  new  and  more  sacred  vow. 
The  spot  where  we  had  taken  root,  where  we  had 
loved  with  our  young  loves  and  dreamed  our  waking 
dreams,  and  where  we  were  held  by  all  the  twinings 
of  the  heart,  has  exhausted  its  resources  upon  us. 
We  must  pluck  up  the  roots  of  our  old  life  and  turn 
away  from  its  scenery  forever.  So  it  is  all  through 
this  world  with  its  enlarging  responsibilities.  We 
must  forego  the  past,  ofttimes  with  ties  that  bleed 
where  they  break,  but  exscinding  the  old  is  the  stern 
condition  of  our  enlargement.  We  may  remain 
where  we  are  and  let  the  moss  and  the  mould  gather 
upon  us  ;  but  if  we  would  avoid  all  this  we  must 
rend  the  heart's  claspings  from  loved  and  familiar 
things  and  let  them  go  out  again.  Our  very  sur- 
roundings as  we  pass  out  of  them  become  the  shed- 
dings  of  the  soul.  Our  most  external  life  then  gives 
us  this  image  of  our  death  to  the  old,  and  ascension 
out  of  it. 


RESURRECTION  AND  ASCENSION.  J$ 

But  changes  more  inward  and  spiritual  are  alsc 
represented.  The  regeneration  of  the  individual  finds 
its  perfect  image  in  the  resurrection  and  ascension 
of  Christ.  Perhaps  we  commence  our  Christian 
course  with  the  persuasion  that  all  is  smooth  and 
even,  that  human  nature  is  only  to  be  unfolded 
like  a  flower,  that  development  is  all  we  need.  The 
child  is  born  perfectly  pure,  we  thought,  and  needs 
only  to  grow  in  stature  and  grow  in  grace.  We  very 
soon  find  out  our  mistake.  We  very  soon  find  that 
there  is  an  old  carnal  man  to  be  put  off  before  the 
angel  can  be  unfolded  from  within.  There  is  lust 
and  covetousness  and  bad  temper,  and  a  whole  brood 
of  hereditary  evils  that  must  be  resisted  and  slain, 
before  the  heavenly  life  comes  into  the  conscious- 
ness, long  before  it  unfolds  with  perfect  clearness. 

We  have  come  to  use  the  word  habits  to  describe 
the  garments  that  we  wear.  It  describes  better  the 
investiture  of  our  souls.  Habits  are  simply  petrified 
loves.  We  love  a  certain  mode  of  living.  We  get 
used  to  it  and  cannot  get  out  of  its  ruts  and  grooves. 
We  love  certain  pleasures  and  gratifications  ;  we 
come  to  depend  upon  them  and  cannot  do  without 
them.  We  love  ease.  It  settles  down  into  a  fixed 
habit  of  indolence,  and  we  cannot  without  great 
effort  break  away  from  our  old  sleepy  rounds  of 
thought  and  practice.  In  this  way  a  great  many 
persons  before  life  is  half  through  get  ironed  into 
one  set  of  opinions,  usages,  and  customs  ;  habits  of 


74  SERMONS  AND   SONGS. 

speech,  of  thought,  and  of  living.  And  that  is  the 
way  that  this  world  gets  hold  of  them  with  grap- 
pling hooks  and  makes  them  grow  old  before  their 
time.  Old  age  is  simply  the  external  man,  both  the 
body  and  the  outward  mind  growing  stiff  and  hard 
and  shutting  in  the  soul  under  the  iron  clamps  of 
custom.  Some  people  get  ironed  in  at  thirty,  most 
at  forty ;  and  unless  Christ  has  touched  their  souls, 
at  fifty  they  are  clean  gone  in  religious  indifference 
or  theologic  petrefactions.  Sometimes  these  people 
are  converted  to  Christ.  But  it  is  by  revolution  not 
by  growth  in  grace  ;  the  Divine  Power  coming 
within  with  so  much  violence  that  the  outward 
natural  man  is  shivered  in  pieces. 

But  a  Christian  life,  orderly  and  heavenly,  is  a  per- 
petual warfare  against  these  creeping  layers  of 
worldliness  and  evil  custom  that  the  life  within  may 
uplift  them  and  be  kept  in  everlasting  freshness  and 
youth.  "  If  we  have  been  planted  together  in  the 
likeness  of  His  death  we  shall  be  also  in  the  likeness 
of  His  resurrection."  It  is  a  life  of  daily  denials  and 
renunciations,  that  the  spirit  of  Christ  may  flow  into 
them  and  fill  them  out  with  himself.  How  beautiful 
is  such  a  life  :  old  things  always  passing  away,  ttye 
old  crumbling  Adam  constantly  put  off  and  the 
angel  taking  its  place  !  Thus  those  who  follow  the 
Lord  Jesus  like  little  children  are  always  renewing 
their  youth  and  putting  on  the  beauty  of  their  prime. 
It  is  daily  death  in  order  to  a  daily  resurrection.     It 


RESURRECTION  AND  ASCENSION  75 

is  rising  from  the  dead  every  hour  and  walking  in 
newness  of  life.  It  is  following  Him  in  the  regenera- 
tion, that  as  the  finite  and  tempted  humanity  waned 
and  disappeared  till  the  Divine  Man  broke  unclouded 
upon  the  world,  ~^  our  selfish  nature  becomes 
weaker  till  it  dies,  and  the  strong  angel  disencum- 
bered walks  free  of  it  in  the  likeness  of  the  Lord's 
resurrection,  and  rejoices  in  the  blessed  Easter  days 
of  renewal  and  glory. 

All  human  progress  looks  to  Christ  as  its  image 
and  representation.  The  progress  of  the  race  is  not 
a  continuous  ascent,  but  a  decay  and  a  resurrection. 
When  Christ  appeared  the  race  was  apparently  in 
ruins.  Christianity  was  not  a  progress,  but  an  emer- 
gence out  of  death  and  the  tomb.  It  was  the  up- 
lifting and  heaving  off  of  whole  ages  of  effete 
religion,  vast  piles  of  superstition  and  of  dead  letter, 
and  a  Divine  form  of  religion  coming  forth  in  its 
place.  The  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ  be- 
come the  perfect  type  of  the  decay  and  renovation 
of  the  humanity  which  He  assumed  and  which  He 
came  to  save.  The  race  is  a  collective  man  and 
passes  through  the  stages  of  growth  and  decay.  The 
eastern  mythologies  are  the  dead  letter  of  what  once 
was  a  living  religion.  The  beautiful  mythology  of 
Greece  is  the  darkened  symbol  it  may  be  of  a  primi- 
tive revelation  to  man.  In  every  form  of  civilization 
—  Greek,  Roman,  Egyptian,  or  Oriental,  we  have  the 
history  of  a  rise,  decline,  and  fall.     Christianity  is 


76  SERMONS  AND  SOATGS. 

simply  a  putting  off  of  the  old  body  and  death  robes 
that  the  new  body  may  emerge  out  of  them.  Thus  the 
Christ  emerging  with  conquering  strength  out  of  the 
finite  and  the  earthly,  one  waxing  as  the  other 
waned,  is  a  divine  picture  of  all  humanity,  decaying 
and  ascending  out  of  decay  till  the  redemption  of  the 
race  on  earth  becomes  complete  and  the  prophecy  is" 
fulfilled,  —  "  Behold  I  create  all  things  new  !  " 

But  the  subject  has  an  application  which  affects 
us  individually  and  vitally.  Over  the  whole  field  of 
natural  death  a  light  comes  down  from  Ascension 
Mount ;  for  there  is  openly  disclosed  to  us  all  that 
is  concealed  under  the  vesture  of  mortal  decay.  It 
is  solemn,  but  hardly  mysterious  when  saintly  old 
age  passes  on  ;  and  if  the  generations  went  in  un- 
broken ranks  death  would  cast  no  shadow  that 
would  trouble  us,  the  cloud  on  the  thither  side  would 
be  so  completely  illumined.  When  our  faculties 
begin  to  fold  in  we  begin  to  die  to  this  world. 
Gently  they  are  folded  in  sometimes  one  after  an- 
other ;  sense,  and  memory,  and  reason,  and  at  last 
consciousness  —  the  book  of  life  all  closed  and  sealed 
and  laid  away,  its  contents  to  outward  appearance 
blurred  or  blotted  out.  But  they  are  not  blotted  out. 
They  are  folded  in  to  be  kept  more  securely,  and  to 
be  opened  again  leaf  after  leaf  that  they  may  have 
a  resetting  and  embodiment  where  decay  and  death 
have  no  longer  any  control.  Thus  growing  old  is  a 
preparation  for  growing  young  again  ;  yea,  age  only 


RESURRECTION  AND  ASCENSION  J  J 

touches  the  outward  man  that  the  man  within, 
more  orderly  and  securely,  may  have  a  clear  unfold- 
ing and  ascension  and  reinvestiture  on  a  field  of 
endless  progress  and  enlargement.  But  whether  old 
or  young,  God  never  calls  away  his  servants  till 
there  is  a  vacant  place  elsewhere  for  them  to  fill ; 
and  when  the  physical  life  is  subordinated  to  the 
moral  and  spiritual,  how  small  is  the  difference 
whether  the  soul's  release  from  it  be  in  age  or  in 
youth  or  in  the  strength  of  manhood  !  Ever  and 
everywhere  the  life  that  is  pure  and  heavenly  is  the 
surrender  of  that  which  is  lower  to  the  call  and  the 
needs  of  that  which  is  higher  ;  of  that  which  is  outer 
and  more  transient  to  that  which  is  essential  and 
eternal. 

These  truths  come  home  to  us  with  special  power 
to-day  after  a  period  of  great  sacrifice,  in  which  the 
Beauty  of  our  Israel  has  been  slain  in  its  high 
places,  and  we  turn  the  light  from  Ascension  Mount 
on  the  Golgothas  of  the  battle-field.  Some  of  rare 
gifts  and  power  for  good,  of  our  own  denomination, 
and  from  among  yourselves,  have  joined  the  long 
procession  of  martyrs.  They  have  followed  in  the 
path  of  the  Great  Sacrifice  for  humanity.  Let  us 
look  well  to  it,  that  we  be  found  in  this  great  pro- 
cession ;  for  living  or  dying,  life  truly  consecrated  is 
a  sacrifice  and  offering  unto  God.  What  a  privilege, 
to  march  in  this  procession  in  which  prophets  and 
martyrs   and   noble  men  and  women  have   walked, 


7 8  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

and  are  walking  now,  at  the  head  of  whom  is  the 
Christ,  breathing  his  life  through  all  and  bidding 
our  step  keep  time  with  his !  And  how  animating 
the  thought,  that  as  the  heavens  fill  up  and  bend  over 
us  the  more  freely  and  vitally  their  life  and  spirit 
pass  into  our  human  affairs  and  make  our  lowly 
service  divine.  Before  we  reach  the  meridian  of  our 
life's  little  day,  those  who  started  together  have 
parted  company  and  most  of  them  are  on  the  other 
side.  Young  men  and  women,  matrons  who  had 
watched  and  worked  with  us,  strong  men  who  bore 
the  heat  and  burden  of  the  day,  have  failed  from 
earth,  though  not  from  the  grand  company  yet 
strong  and  active  to  do  the  divine  will.  "  We  do 
not  wish  them  back  again,"  you  say,  but  you  say  it 
mechanically  ;  for  the  lips  say  it,  not  the  heart.  We 
do  wish  them  back  for  earth  needs  all  their  activ- 
ities and  energies,  and  hearts  that  have  once  beat 
together  cannot  be  sundered  without  the  sense  of 
heart-breaking  and  of  baffled  sympathies  and  affec- 
tions which  yearn  for  the  same  unison  again.  And 
these  affections  are  mightily  prophetic  ;  for  a  voice 
from  them  comes  out  of  the  very  deeps  of  human 
nature,  assuring  us  that  the  veil  of  mortality  is  too 
thin  and  unsubstantial  to  keep  those  apart  who  are 
spiritually  one  in  the  grand  aims  and  purposes  of 
existence,  and  in  doing  the  will  of  Him  who  unites 
all  his  disciples  in  one  great  organism,  as  living 
branches  of  a  living  Vine.     While  we  are  trying  to 


RESURRECTION  AND  ASCENSION  79 

give  them  up  they  are  coming  again  already,  not  in 
visible  manifestation  but  in  that  tide  of  spiritual  life 
more  full  and  deep  that  beats  through  our  heart  of 
hearts  from  the  sphere  of  immortality.  We  do  not 
wish  them  back  again  ?  I  wish  them  all  back 
again  ;  and  I  doubt  not  they  come  back  in  methods 
higher  than  we  conceive  of  or  know  how  to  pray 
for,  as  they  make  the  heavens  more  full  and  strong 
and  make  them  bend  near  us  and  touch  us  with  a 
more  tender  and  pervading  love. 


A  SONG   OF  VICTORY. 

Sing  we  now  a  song  of  triumph  ; 

Leave  betimes  the  shadowy  vales 
Where  the  winds  across  our  lute-strings 

Sink  to  low  and  sorrowing  wails. 
Stand  we  now  upon  the  mountains 

Where  the  glory  shines  complete  ; 
Where  the  thunders  roll  beneath  us 

Making  music   at  our  feet. 

Lo,  the  pathway  lies  behind  us, 

Where  we  marched  o'er  heaps  of  slain 
And  our  vanquished  foes  lie  bleeding 

All  along  the  battle-plain  ;  — 
All  the  sordid  troop  of  Mammon  ; 

Coward  Fear  and  lust  of  Praise  ; 
Death  that  cast  his  baleful  shadow 

Over  all  our  darkling  ways  ; 

Unbelief  that  feeds  on  ashes  ; 

Fear  of  man  that  brings  a  snare  ; 
Selfish  Grief  and  selfish  Pleasure  ; 

Carnal  Pride  and  haggard  Care  ; 
Satan  in  fair  form  transfigured 

Strewing  garlands  on  the  road 
To  install  our  vaunting  Reason 

On  the  eternal  throne  of  God. 
6 


82  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

See  his  rabble  host  retreating  ! 

Shattered  spear  and  broken  shield ; 
See  his  waning  camp-fires  flicker 

All  along  the  conquered  field  ; 
And  o'er  all  like  flashing  sunbeams 

Waves  the  mighty  Conqueror's  sword  — 
Louder  than  your  Io  Paeans 

Allelujahs  to  the  Lord  ! 

Then  beyond  the  Silent  River 

See  the  mystic  mountains  rise  ! 
Range  on  range  away  ascending 

Till  they  kiss  the  vaulted  skies  ; 
And  along  their  sun-smit  summits 

Thousands  walk  with  sparkling  feet, 
And  give  back  our  song  of  triumph 

In  the  distance  soft  and  sweet. 

From  the  myriad  gleaming  turrets 

Whence  the  billowy  music  swells, 
Clear  across  the  Silent  River. 

Float  the  chimes  of  morning  bells : 
They  have  conquered  —  we  have  conquered 

And  one  note  of  triumph  raise, 
Heaven  and  earth  here  join  together 

In  their  grandest  song  of  praise. 

Ah  !  adown  the  valley  yonder, 

Bending  earthward,  draped  with  woe, 
Keeping  step  to  funeral  dirges, 

Who  are  they  that  creep  so  slow  ? 
Haste  ye  swiftly  with  the  tidings 

Wafted  from  the  peaks  of  day ; 
Lead  them  up  to    Mount  Ascension, 

Fling  their  scrannel  pipes  away. 


A   SONG  OF   VICTORY.  83 

Give  them  beauty  now  for  ashes  ; 

Out  of  weakness  make  them  strong  ; 
And  in  place  of  churchyard  music, 

Give  the  resurrection  song, 
Which  the  beauteous  lips  of  loved  ones 

That  they  kissed  with  sad  farewells, 
Sing  to  them  from  o'er  the  River 

Mid  the  chimes  of  morning  bells. 

Now  the  noontide  floods  the  waters. 

Still  beneath  the  silent  oar, 
And  their  mocky  depths  of  crystal 

Copy  down  the  immortal  shore. 
Sing  we  then  upon  the  mountains 

Where   the  glory  shines  complete, 
To  the  conquering  Christ  hosannas  — 

Flino-  your  garlands  at  his  feet  ! 


VI. 
INTERCESSIONS  OF  THE  SPIRIT. 

(WHITSUNDAY.) 

Romans  viii.  26.  We  know  not  what  we  should  pray  for  as 
we  ought :  but  the  Spirit  itself  maketh  intercession  for  us 
with  groanings  which  cannot  be  uttered. 

'VT'OU  might  infer  at  first  from  this  word  "  groan- 
-■■  ings  "  that  the  Apostle  makes  effectual  prayer 
to  consist  in  what  are  called  agonizings,  or  importu- 
nity ;  as  if  God  were  like  some  fickle  parents  who 
deny  their  children  what  they  simply  ask  for,  but 
grant  it  afterwards  to  their  vociferous  cries.  No 
such  doctrine  of  prayer  is  here  set  forth  ;  and 
though  this  word  "  groanings "  sometimes  renders 
the  Greek  term  well  enough,  it  certainly  is  not  the 
proper  word  here.  More  often  the  word  sighing,  or 
deep  breathing,  is  the  appropriate  rendering. 

Looking  back  a  little  through  the  context,  you  ob- 
serve that  the  Apostle  describes  our  weak  and  suf- 
fering nature  girded  with  frailty  and  mortality  and 
sighing  for  its  deliverance.  He  sees  the  whole  cre- 
ation travailing  in  pain.  Not  only  those  whom  the 
Gospel  has  not  enlightened  and  blessed,  but  those 


86  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

also  who  have  the  first-fruits  of  the  Spirit,  into 
whom  the  promised  Comforter  has  descended,  have 
the  same  travailings  and  sighings  for  redemption. 
And  here  the  Apostle  interposes  in  the  text  his  doc- 
trine of  encouragement  and  consolation.  We  are  not 
groping  in  the  dark.  These  sighings  of  the  world 
are  not  the  private  praying  of  individuals.  They 
are  the  Spirit  of  God  that  intercedes  and  proph- 
esies within  us.  They  are  the  Divine  voice  that 
issues  out  of  depths  profounder  than  our  own  weak- 
nesses and  infirmities,  rising  straight  up  through 
them  and  telling  us  of  things  to  be.  "  For, "  he  says, 
M  we  know  not  what  we  should  pray  for  as  we  ought, 
but  the  Spirit  itself  prays  in  us."  It  is  He  that 
prays,  not  we,  in  sighs  which  are  inarticulate  —  that 
is,  in  aspirations  which  are  not  our  private  petitions, 
but  the  prophecyings  of  God  out  of  the  deeps  of  our 
suffering  humanity. 

A  truth  here  dawns  upon  us,  whose  sweep  and 
significance  are  of  the  greatest  moment.  It  is  none 
other  than  the  immanence  of  God  in  human  nature ; 
his  prophecyings  in  us  and  the  pledges  of  the  Divine 
veracity  for  their  fulfillment. 

Following  out  this  doctrine  of  the  Apostle,  we  dis- 
tinguish in  the  human  heart  two  classes  of  desires : 
one  class  human,  one  class  Divine,  or  inspirations  of 
the  Divine.  There  are  those  which  are  simply  per- 
sonal, which  relate  to  my  own  private  affairs,  bodily 
appetites,  worldly  comforts,  animal  wants,  personal 


INTERCESSIONS  OF  THE  SPIRIT  8? 

expectations  and  plans.  They  are  the  Teachings  out 
of  the  selfhood  after  its  own  gratifications.  These 
God  has  not  pledged  Himself  always  to  fulfill.  On 
the  other  hand  He  crosses  them,  denies  them,  mor- 
tifies them,  sometimes  entirely  subdues  and  over- 
comes them.  These  are  not  his  voice  in  us.  They 
are  our  own  private  and  personal  cries,  sometimes 
answered,  sometimes  not,  according  as  it  comports 
with  our  own  and  the  common  weal.  And  there  are 
some,  undoubtedly,  who  have  no  other  desires  than 
these,  and  who  never  pray  heartily  for  aught  but 
personal  favors.  What  helps  them  on  in  this  world 
and  makes  them  personally  prosperous  is  all  they 
wish  or  ask  for.  All  the  world  is  going  right  pro- 
vided their  selfhood  be  ministered  unto  and  fed  and 
pampered.  All  the  world  is  going  wrong  if  this  be 
not  so.  And  so  the  Divine  breathing,  as  it  comes 
in  deep  sighs  through  human  nature,  like  wind  mur- 
muring through  groves  of  pine,  has  never  been  felt 
in  their  consciousness. 

But  to  all  persons  who  have  the  first-fruits  of 
the  Spirit,  on  whose  natures  the  Christian  Gospel 
has  had  even  the  beginnings  of  its  operation,  there 
are  sighings  and  aspirations  quite  other  than  these. 
They  transcend  the  little  sphere  of  self  and  personal 
interest.  They  originate  not  in  us.  They  strike 
into  us  and  roll  out  again,  faint  and  feeble,  or  full 
and  strong,  as  you  are  fitted  to  receive  and  give 
them  out,  —  like  an  organ  of  sweet  stops  when  struck 


88  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

or  played  upon  from  another  hand.  These  are  what 
Paul  means  by  the  intercessions  of  the  Spirit  in 
breathings  which  are  inarticulate.  Let  us  distin- 
guish them  ;  and  as  we  distinguish  this  voice  of  God 
in  us  from  our  personal  cries  and  selfish  clamors,  a 
twofold  lesson  will  come  to  us  as  we  proceed. 
What  then  are  the  breathings  upward  which  come 
from  the  immanence  of  God  in  human  souls  ? 

I.  First,  there  are  the  hopes  of  immortality. 
True,  the  hope  of  a  future  life  may  be  a  selfish  hope. 
Not  so,  however,  when  we  crave  it  as  a  prolonged 
and  enlarged  sphere  of  angelic  activities  already 
begun.  Addison's  argument  for  the  future  life  is 
from  the  expectations  which  God  implanted,  and 
which,  therefore,  He  cannot  disappoint.  But  it  is 
more  than  this  you  perceive  in  the  grand  apostolic 
argument,  more  than  mere  continuous  existence. 
See  how  he  puts  it.  The  whole  creation  sighs  and 
travails  in  pain,  waiting  for  the  redemption  of  our 
body.  You  perceive  it  is  not  continuous  existence 
merely  which  the  Apostle  has  in  view.  It  is  exist- 
ance  freed  from  these  clogs  and  hindrances  and  lim- 
itations. It  is  the  redemption  of  our  body,  so  that 
from  being  a  drag,  it  shall  become  the  fit  organism 
of  the  soul.  Have  you  not  wondered  sometimes  at 
the  arrangements  and  economies  of  this  life  ;  why  so 
much  of  our  time  is  taken  up  in  getting  bread,  and 
raiment,  and  shelter  for  the  body  ;  why  that  is  made 
our   most   absorbing   care,  and   to   so  many  people 


INTERCESSIONS  OF  THE  SPIRIT.  89 

almost  their  sole  concern ;  why  even  the  glories  of 
sky  and  landscape  are  made  secondary  to  their  min- 
'  istrations  to  bodily  wants  ;  why  Nature's  secret  lab- 
oratories are  broken  into  and  searched,  not  so  much 
to  get  openings  upward  as  to  get  some  medicine  for 
man's  poor  infirmities  and  bruises  ?  Very  strange  it 
would  be,  except  that  this  earth  was  designed  only 
as  the  very  rudiments  of  being,  the  mere  chrysalis  of 
our  existence.  Very  strange  it  would  be,  except  that 
this  veil  of  flesh  and  matter  was  designed  to  conceal 
from  us  more  than  it  discloses,  and  only  give  us 
hints,  suggestions,  and  tantalizing  gleams.  It  is  the 
Divine  plan  first  to  excite  longings  and  hungerings 
before  God  fills  us  with  good.  Indeed,  the  hunger- 
ings must  come  first,  else  the  good  cannot  be 
relished,  or  even  received.  Therefore  it  is  that  here 
He  has  barred  us  in  and  balked  us  in  a  thousand 
ways,  cumbered  with  gross  bodies,  and  very  mean 
ones  at  that,  yet  given  us  vanishing  glimpses  of  a 
better  state,  that  He  may  awaken  these  sighings  and 
expectations.  Such  are  the  aspirations  of  immortal- 
ity. They  come  not  till  a  state  of  being  has  dawned 
upon  our  faith  transcending  so  much  the  highest 
perfection  of  this,  that  its  faintest  twilight  shall  show 
us  more  of  the  Divine  Beauty  than  earth's  most  re- 
fulgent noon. 

I  remember  that  when  a  child,  I  used  to  play 
almost  within  the  giant  shadows  of  the  Taghconic 
Mountains,  and  sometimes  stop  and  look  up  at  that 


90  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

great  wall  of  blue  that  stood  sharp  against  the  sky, 
and  wonder  what  lay  over  beyond  it.  The  wonder 
and  longing  increased  with  years,  the  more  so  as  I 
watched  the  setting  sunlight  round  up  the  highest 
peak  and  disappear,  indicating,  as  it  would  seem,  an 
ocean  of  gold  surging  up  from  the  other  side ;  till  I 
broke  away  one  day  and  climbed  up  there,  through 
bush  and  brier,  and  stood  on  the  summit  and  looked 
over  into  the  unimaginable  and  glorious  Beyond. 
That  discipline  is  just  what  God  is  doing  for  us  here 
in  these  valleys  of  time  with  the  light  of  eternity 
playing  on  the  highest  peaks  that  hem  us  in.  The 
Christian  faith  has  not  dawned  upon  you  with  any 
clearness  unless  it  has  so  exalted  and  brightened 
all  your  ideals  of  the  Divine  glory  that  this  earth 
grows  very  dim  and  shadowy  even  in  its  summer 
robes  and  holidays  ;  and  then  come  the  breathings 
inarticulate  which  Paul  describes ;  aspirations  to- 
wards a  perfection  and  a  beauty  which  transcend 
those  of  the  senses  ;  the  foretellings  of  the  soul  as 
struck  by  the  Spirit  of  God  on  whose  line  of  aspira- 
tions she  rises  to  their  fulfillment  as  faith  turns  to 
sight  and  hope  is  lost  in  Reality. 

Is  there  any  heart  here  that  sighs  for  a  better 
state  ?  Is  there  any  mind  on  which  has  dawned 
the  blessed  ideals  of  a  perfection  unrealized  ;  of  a 
fellowship  more  full  and  sufficing  than  you  get  here  ; 
of  more  heartfelt  communion  with  Christ ;  of  the  ex- 
ercise of  a  more  swift  angelic  beneficence  ?     These 


INTERCESSIONS  OF  THE  SPIRIT.  9 1 

are  not  your  sighings,  but  breathings  of  God  through 
you,  and  telling  you  of  things  to  be.  They  are  not 
private  prophecyings,  but  the  touch  of  God's  finger 
on  the  human  lyre,  waking  sighs  for  redemption,  and 
giving  openings  of  paradise.  They  awaken  sighs 
and  longings,  because  in  the  nature  of  things  God 
must  give  us  hunger  before  He  gives  us  food  :  the 
thirst  must  come  before  the  slaking,  and  yearnings 
after  higher  perfection  must  come  to  you  before  you 
enter  the  land  where  there  is  no  trail  of  the  serpent 
over  its  green. 

II.  Somewhat  different  from  this,  yet  intimately 
connected  with  it,  are  breathings  after  holiness. 
These  again  are  not  your  private  desires,  but  the 
Spirit  praying  in  you  and  through  you.  How  selfish 
sometimes  are  our  prayers  !  —  prayers  even  for  sal- 
vation, when  by  being  saved  is  only  meant  some 
outward  good  vicariously  bestowed  and  purchased. 
But  breathings  after  holiness,  or  heaven  as  a  sub- 
jective state  of  purity  and  divine  order  within  you 
are  quite  otherwise.  And  He  has  girded  us  with  sin 
and  pollution,  and  made  us  vividly  conscious  of  them, 
and  then  put  his  own  Spirit  within  us  for  the  end  of 
showing  our  corruption  in  contrast  with  his  own 
purity,  that  we  may  sigh  for  the  holiness  of  God. 
And  you  observe  that  according  to  the  apostolic  doc- 
trine these  breathings  for  holiness  are  the  pledge  of 
fulfillment.  They  are  the  Spirit  prophecying  —  not 
we — therefore  God's  promise  that  He  will  make  us 


92  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

clean  if  only  we  desire  it.  If  you  desire  cleanness  of 
heart,  it  is  the  sure  pledge  that  you  will  have  it ;  for 
it  is  God  promising.  Those  who  are  always  satisfied, 
who  are  complacent  in  their  worldliness,  the  angels 
themselves  might  despair  of.  As  to  purity*  of  heart 
and  life,  the  same  law  must  hold  ever  and  every- 
where ;  the  thirst  must  come  before  the  slaking, 
the  hunger  before  the  food  :  the  awful  chasm  be- 
tween our  corruption  and  God's  purity  must  be  seen 
before  He  will  come  over  to  us  and  bring  forth  his 
best  robe  and  put  it  on  us. 

III.  Once  more  we  analyze,  and  we  find  in  every 
soul  which  has  been  born  of  the  Spirit  a  sentiment 
which  stands  apart  from  all  our  selfish  wants  and 
clamorings.  It  is  the  desire  to  serve  others  ;  to  do 
something  for  the  common  weal,  something,  however 
humble,  that  shall  increase  the  sum  total  of  human 
happiness,  and  that  shall  tend  to  redeem  the  world 
from  evil  and  restore  it  to  a  full  communion  with  its 
Lord.  It  is  this  sentiment  which  inspires  every 
missionary  enterprise  and  sends  the  Howards  and 
the  Judsons  over  the  earth  as  the  angels  of  heavenly 
mercy.  It  is  this  which  prompts  all  our  praying  for 
each  other,  and  all  our  deeds  of  disinterested  love. 
The  motions  of  the  Spirit  within,  and  its  forthgoings 
in  prayers  and  activities  for  human  redemption,  are 
its  intercessions  for  the  salvation  of  all  mankind. 
In  one  of  his  sublime  moods  the  Apostle  hears  the 
low   breathing   of   the   whole   creation  going  up  in 


INTERCESSIONS  OE  THE  SPIRIT.  93 

moanings  and  pleadings  for  deliverance,  as  if  the 
universal  Spirit  had  made  all  nature  and  all  human- 
ity an  instrument  to  play  upon,  and  whose  minor 
keys  sent  up  to  the  ear  of  God  tones  of  pity  and 
wailing  for  human  woe.  It  is  the  universe  travail- 
ing in  pain  at  the  touch  of  the  Divine  hand  upon 
its  heart-strings  ;  it  is  God's  Spirit  breathing  through 
it  and  coming  up  again  to  his  ear  in  one  universal 
prayer  for  restoration  to  its  Lord.  The  older 
churches  have  prayers  for  the  dead,  assuming,  and 
very  justly  too,  that  death  does  not  sunder  the  ties 
of  a  common  brotherhood  ;  and  unless  you  allow  the 
assumption  of  our  extreme  Protestantism,  that  as 
soon  as  we  die  our  state  is  fixed  eternally  and  cannot 
change,  no  reason  appears  why  we  should  not  pray 
for  them  still.  The  happiness  of  heaven  itself  must 
have  an  element  of  disturbance,  —  must  lack  com- 
pleteness, to  say  the  least,  so  long  as  the  wail  of  suf- 
fering rises  from  below  to  mingle  with  its  songs,  with 
no  effort  or  desire  to  mitigate  and  save. 

IV.  But  the  sermon  would  not  be  faithful  without 
another  application.  There  is  in  all  men  a  sense  or 
a  faculty  which  they  call  conscience.  By  common 
consent  it  is  regarded  as  standing  apart  in  the  con- 
sciousness —  the  Shekinah  which  the  Lord  keeps  in 
our  nature,  whence  his  light  flashes  out  to  warn  and 
to  guide  us.  We  will  not  pause  to  analyze  it  now ; 
but  if  you  have  attended  to  the  state  of  your  own 
mind  when  the  conscience  was  responding  in  tones 


94  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

of  reproach  to  violations  of  the  Divine  Law,  you 
have  found  something  more  than  a  sense  of  right 
and  wrong.  You  have  found  mingled  with  your 
regret  and  self-reproach  an  apprehension  of  some- 
thing to  come. 

The  conscience  is  always  prophetic.  It  looks  be- 
fore as  well  as  after.  Hence,  so  many  who  have 
denied  bibles  and  revelations  from  without  for  the 
sake  of  getting  a  sense  of  security  in  sin,  have  been 
startled  by  fore-gleams  from  within,  shining  down 
into  chasms  of  a  coming  retribution.  We  may  deny 
the  written  Bible  ;  we  may  mistake  its  meaning  ;  we 
may  be  bewildered  by  false  religions.  But  the  fact 
remains,  that  God  has  so  formed  our  very  nature 
and  so  pitched  and  tuned  it,  that  when  you  lay 
profane  hands  on  the  instrument  you  are  answered 
by  a  voice  that  rolls  in  startling  distinctness,  down 
even  the  long  and  shadowy  aisles  of  an  eternal 
world,  and  the  scenery  of  a  coming  judgment.  It 
is  not  man  speaking,  but  God  speaking  out  of  man, 
—  the  Spirit  immanent  in  you,  not  merely  telling 
you  what  is  right  and  what  is  wrong,  but  holding 
you  to  a  coming  retribution  and  refusing  to  let  you 
go.  It  is '  God  speaking  through  you,  foretelling  a 
judgment  to  come,  since  He  is  not  a  man  that  He 
should  lie,  nor  the  son  of  man  that  He  should  repent 

I  have  read  of  a  man  who  reasoned  himself  into 
atheism  and  crime,  but  coming  to  the  verge  of  this 
mortal  life  was  awakened  by  the  loud  prophecies  of 


INTERCESSIONS  OF   THE   SPIRIT  95 

the  Spirit  within.  It  was  not  fear  of  a  local  hell 
somewhere  in  the  uncertain  future,  but  hell  already 
realized,  and  flinging  its  lurid  gleams  through  the 
shadows  of  the  coming  darkness.  "  That  which  tri- 
umphs," said  he,  "within  the  jaws  of  immortality  is 
doubtless  immortal ;  and  as  for  a  Deity,  nothing  less 
than  an  Almighty  could  inflict  what  I  feel."  Ter- 
rible arguments  these !  The  voice  of  God  strik- 
ing through  us,  but  rolling  out  of  us  again,  down 
through  the  abysses  of  eternity.  Better  be  per- 
suaded of  a  God  by  willing  obedience  to  his  Christ, 
than  by  the  prophecies  of  a  violated  conscience, 
sounding  on  through  the  portals  that  open  down- 
ward into  the  night. 

One  lesson  let  me  draw  from  the  subject,  and  that 
we  will  lay  up  and  carry  home  with  us.  Some  peo- 
ple are  always  doubting  and  hesitating  about  prayer. 
Why  should  we  pray  at  all  since  God  knows  our 
wants  before  we  ask  Him  ?  You  see  in  the  light  of 
this  subject  that  those  who  have  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  in  them  pray  because  they  cannot  help  it  ; 
for  when  you  get  beyond  the  circle  of  mere  sel§sh 
desires  his  Spirit  prays  in  you  and  urges  you  might- 
ily. Longings  for  higher  attainment  as  the  bright 
ideals  go  on  before  you  and  beckon  you  upward  ; 
breathing  after  holiness  when  in  the  light  of  God's 
dazzling  purity  you  are  sick  of  your  own  sin,  —  when 
these   come  to   you,  you   will  pray  every  day  and 


96  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

every  hour,  and  what  is  more,  be  sure  of  an  an- 
swer. 

I  think  one  of  the  most  blessed  boons  which  the 
Gospel  bestows  on  the  human  race  is  the  clear  an- 
nunciation of  a  principle  that  takes  all  servility  out 
of  worship,  and  all  selfishness  out  of  prayer  ;  this 
principle,  namely,  that  the  desire  of  salvation,  if  you 
have  it,  renders  it  impossible  you  should  ever  miss  of 
salvation  —  as  impossible  as  it  is  for  God  to  break 
his  word.  Only  do  not  make  a  mistake  as  to  what 
salvation  means.  It  means  a  clean  heart  and  a  heav- 
enly mind.  It  is  not  heaven  as  the  scenery  of  rivers 
and  landscapes,  though  doubtless  all  that  may  be, 
but  heaven  as  a  subjective  state  of  Christ-like  dis- 
position and  affections. 

Whoever  desires  these  and  prays  for  them,  the 
prayer  renders  it  impossible  he  shall  miss  the  attain- 
ment, since  it  is  the  Holy  Spirit  praying  and  proph- 
esying within.  It  is  thus  that  every  one  who 
asketh,  receiveth,  and  he  who  seeketh,  findeth.  The 
annunciation  of  this  one  law  of  asking  and  receiving, 
of  prayer  and  its  answer,  puts  the  Gospel  in  heavenly 
contrast  with  human  substitutes  'for  the  Gospel  ; 
and,  if  once  you  have  a  firm  grasp  upon  it,  is  suffi- 
cient to  take  all  gloom  from  religion,  to  put  into  it 
the  elasticity  of  faith  and  hope,  yea,  to  hang  all  the 
clouds  of  life  with  rainbows. 


THE  THREE  ADVENTS. 

The  Eternal  Word  came  down  from  heaven 

Wrapped  in  our  human  clay  ; 
Beneath  his  voice  the  tombs  were  riven 

And  searched  with  blaze  of  day. 

He  comes  again  —  the  Spirit's  power, 

On  soft  and  dove-like  wing  ; 
I  breathe  in  this  thy  advent  hour 

The  balmiest  gales  of  Spring  ! 

And  when  thy  voice,  like  thunders  loud, 

Brings  on  the  judgment  day, 
And  through  this  intervening  cloud 

Doth  cleave  thy  shining  way, 

Let  thy  white  robe  of  righteousness 

Our  trusting  souls  adorn, 
And  be  the  shinings  of  thy  face 

The  eternal  Christmas  Morn  ! 


VII. 

THE   GOSPEL   CONTRASTS. 

Matthew  xxv.  46.     These  shall  go  away  into  everlasting 
pu7iishme?it :  but  the  righteous  into  life  eternal. 

nr*HE  arrangement  of  the  words  in  the  original 
-*-  text  is  so  made  that  the  two  members  of  the 
sentence  are  put  in  balance  one  against  the  other. 
Thus,  "These  shall  go  away  into  punishment  eternal, 
but  the  righteous  into  life  eternal."  This  word  ren- 
dered "  punishment "  means,  according  to  its  ety- 
mology, a  particular  kind  of  punishment.  Literally 
it  means  pruning  —  as  the  pruning  of  trees.  It  sug- 
gests the  idea  that  the  punishment  is  not  arbitrary 
or  revengeful,  but  disciplinary  and  corrective  ;  for 
you  do  not  prune  trees  for  the  purpose  of  destroying 
them,  but  to  remove  hindrances  and  morbid  growths. 
The  passage  has  often  been  regarded  as  if  the  chief 
thing  to  be  considered  was  the  duration  of  the  pun- 
ishment of  the  unrighteous,  over  against  the  dura- 
tion of  the  life  of  the  righteous  ;  and  that  since  both 
are  described  by  the  same  word  they  are  of  like  du- 
ration. That  would  undoubtedly  be  so  if  mere  dura- 
tion or  extension  by  time  were  expressed  at  all,  or 


IOO  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

any  way  involved  in  the  contrast.  But  that,  as  I 
should  interpret,  is  not  the  meaning  of  the  original 
word.  The  element  of  time  as  we  measure  things 
does  not  enter  into  it  at  all.  Not  duration,  but 
quality,  is  the  chief  thing  involved  in  this  word  ren- 
dered "  eternal."  If  I  should  say  one  man's  state  is 
heavenly  and  another  man's  is  fiendish,  I  should  put 
their  qualities  in  contrast,  without  reference  to  their 
duration.  So  here  in  the  contrast  between  the  pun- 
ishment of  the  unrighteous  and  the  life  of  the  right- 
eous. The  word  which  qualifies  them  does  not  mean 
measurement  by  our  standards  of  time,  whether  end- 
less or  not.  It  means  rather  a  punishment  and  a  life 
beyond  time  and  all  its  changes  and  estimates.  The 
eternal  life  is  promised  the  saints  now  and  here,  but 
they  may  forfeit  it  and  fall  away  from  it  nevertheless. 
So  I  should  paraphrase  the  words  thus  :  These  shall 
go  away  into  a  punishment  which  time  cannot  meas- 
ure, and  the  righteous  into  a  life  which  time  cannot 
measure  ;  that  is,  which  is  out  of  time  and  beyond  its 
bourne. 

This  whole  discourse,  running  through  two  chap- 
ters, the  twenty-fourth  and  twenty-fifth,  has  always 
seemed  to  me  the  most  remarkable  that  ever  fell 
from  human  lips.  It  is  one  of  those  utterances  which 
avouch  their  own  origin,  and  which  break  through  all 
the  discoursings  of  men  as  a  peal  of  thunder  from 
the  heavens  hushes  the  noises  of  the  street  and  com- 
pels us  to  listen.     That  Matthew,  or  anybody  else, 


THE   GOSPEL    CONTRASTS.  101 

put  it  in  of  himself,  that  the  literary  exploit  of  any 
age  is  up  to  a  level  of  that  kind,  were  about  as  rea- 
sonable to  my  mind  as  to  suppose  that  some  tele- 
graph operator  had  become  so  expert  as  to  invent 
the  lightnings,  or  so  mimic  their  course  on  the  sky 
that  none  could  distinguish  the  real  ones  from  the 
flashy  imitations.  Not  that  this  discourse  of  our 
Saviour  deals  mainly  in  the  terrific,  or  in  appeals  to 
human  fears.  It  has  passages  so  full  of  tenderness 
that  it  would  seem  as  if  the  very  heart  of  the  Divine 
Mercy  were  breaking  for  the  woes  of  men  ;  and  in 
these  last  passages  that  announce  the  Divine  judg- 
ments, there  is  a  humanity  that  swells  and  throbs 
through  the  sentences :  as  when  He  speaks  of  the 
hungry,  the  naked,  the  prisoners,  all  of  God's  humble 
poor,  and  says  mercy  to  them  is  the  same  as  mercy 
to  me,  for  I  suffer  with  them. 

The  word  axWv  and  its  derivatives,  rendered 
"  eternal "  and  "  everlasting,"  describe  an  economy 
complete  in  itself,  and  the  duration  must  depend  on 
the  nature  of  the  economy.  What  then  do  the 
Scriptures  reveal  to  us  ?  The  results  of  this  tempo- 
ral economy  in  the  one  that  lies,  next  on,  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  first  death.  They  lift  the  curtain,  and 
in  the  solemn  porches  of  eternity  they  show  us  the 
human  current  parting  divers  ways  to  the  realms  of 
light  and  the  realms  of  darkness.  The  New  Testa- 
ment, if  it  reveals  anything,  reveals  the  oxiiv  —  the 
dispensation  that  lies  next  to  this,  and  gathers  into 


102  SERMONS  AXD  SOXGS. 

it  the  momentous  results  of  our  probation  in  time. 
But  what  lies  beyond  that  in  the  cycles  of  a  coming 
eternity,  I  do  not  believe  has  been  revealed  to  the 
highest  angel.  Think  of  that  endless  Beyond  !  If 
ever}-  atom  of  the  globe  were  counted  off  and  every 
atom  stood  for  a  million  years,  still  we  have  not  ap- 
proached a  conception  of  endless  duration.  And  yet 
sinful  and  fallible  men  affirm  that  their  fellow  sinners 
are  to  be  given  over  to  indescribable  agonies  through 
those  millions  of  years  thus  repeated,  and  even  then 
the  clocks  of  eternity  have  only  struck  the  morning 
hour  !  that  the  hells  of  pent-up  anguish  are  to  streak 
eternity  with  blood  in  lines  parallel  forever  with  the 
being  of  God  !  If  Gabriel  should  come  and  tell  us 
that,  we  should  have  a  risfht  to  believe  that  the  his- 
tor}'  of  the  infinite  future  infolded  in  the  bosom  of 
God  had  not  been  given  to  Gabriel ! 

A  candid  and  reasonable  interpretation,  while  it 
has  not  told  and  cannot  tell  what  lies  beyond  the 
cycle  which  Scripture  reveals,  may  and  does  give  us 
clearer  views  of  the  nature  of  retribution.  All  the 
scenery  of  the  spirit-world  described  in  the  Bible 
is  to  be  understood  in  the  light  of  a  more  rational 
pneumatology.  Because  it  is  not  material  scenery, 
it  none  the  less  sets  forth  the  most  august  realities, 
the  things  contained  already  in  human  nature  and 
waiting  to  be  disclosed.  The  future  of  man  he  bears 
within  himself  —  the  white  enrobing  purities,  and 
the  fires  and  the  ascending  smoke  of  torment.     It  is 


THE   GOSPEL    COXTRASTS.  103 

a  most  instructive  fact  that  conceptions  of  the  future 
retribution  always  tally  exactly  with  one's  intuitions 
of  moral  evil.  Any  man  who  thinks  sin  belongs  only 
to  the  surface,  will  see  very  little  or  no  evil  in  pros- 
pect when  this  outward  coil  has  been  removed.  Any 
man  in  whose  consciousness  moral  and  spiritual  evil 
have  been  more  vivid,  and  its  subtle  and  malignant 
nature  understood,  will  readily  believe  that  the  low- 
est hells  which  the  Scriptures  describe  are  no  rhetor- 
ical exaggerations,  but  the  real  apocalypse  of  an  un- 
cleansed  human  nature.  He  knows  that  since  this 
tide  of  humanity  is  setting  into  the  spiritual  world 
continually,  with  only  portions  of  it  redeemed  from 
evil,  there  must  be  in  that  world  the  heights  of  peace 
and  the  noxious  abysses  which  no  plummet  can 
fathom,  and  he  will  not  by  to  hide  the  reality  in 
shallow  sentimentalism.  For  what  is  here  concealed 
under  temporal  disguises,  must  there  be  open  and 
palpable  where  the  disguises  are  swept  away.  Three 
stages  of  enlightenment  on  this  subject  may  be  thus 
described.  In  the  ante-Christian  period  there  were 
faint  gleams  and  guess-work.  In  the  first  Christian 
period  the  fact  is  disclosed,  the  imager}-  of  heaven 
and  hell  is  unveiled  with  marvelous  distinctness, 
but  understood  as  localities  of  space  and  time.  But 
in  the  stage  of  more  rational  interpretation  they  are 
the  symbolization  of  the  things  in  man  to  break  forth 
in  open  manifestation. 

With  these  preliminary  considerations,  let  us  en- 


104  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

deavor  to  get  the  essential  meaning  of  these  gospel 
contrasts,  summed  up  in  the  text  as  the  contrast  be- 
tween eternal  (atwnov)  life  and  eternal  punishment, 
more  often  described  as  the  contrast  between  life 
and  death.  In  so  doing,  I  am  persuaded  we  shall 
come  to  the  heart  and  substance  of  the  Gospel  mes- 
sage. 

All  life  in  man  is  measured  by  the  intensity  and 
vividness  of  the  consciousness.  Life  in  its  fullness 
means  strength  and  quickness  in  all  the  faculties. 
Take  for  illustration  the  lowest  plane,  which  is  the 
sensuous  life.  In  some  people  the  senses  are  clear 
and  quick,  and  they  will  put  one  in  swift  communi- 
cation with  all  the  beauty  and  all  the  facts  that  lie 
about  him.  We  say  then  he  is  alive  to  what  is 
around  him.  The  ear  drinks  in  the  smallest  wave- 
lets of  sound.  The  eye  sees ;  and  color,  size,  pro- 
portion, outline,  distance,  things  far  and  near,  and 
great  and  small,  are  keenly  discerned.  The  touch 
takes  swift  cognition  in  the  thrilling  nerves.  And 
so  of  all  the  senses.  One  man  will  pass  through  a 
few  miles  of  space  and  be  so  alive  to  what  is  in  it 
that  volumes  will  not  exhaust  his  narrative.  And 
you  can  imagine  these  senses  so  alive  as  to  see 
worlds  of  wonder  and  glory  right  about  us  which 
have  never  disclosed  themselves  to  us  as  yet  be- 
cause we  are  too  dull  to  take  them  in,  —  under  our 
feet,  over  head,  in  all  the  air,  —  mysteries  that  lie  at 
the  heart  of  things  waiting  to  be  disclosed.     One  of 


THE   GOSPEL    CONTRASTS.  105 

the  fathers  of  astronomy,  opposed  by  the  bigots 
of  his  day,  exults  at  the  marvels  which  opened  to 
his  keener  vision,  and  he  exclaims  with  rapture  :  "  I 
can  wait  two  hundred  years  for  a  reader  since  God 
waited  six  thousand  years  for  an  observer  ! " 

Again,  the  senses  may  be  dull  and  half-dead,  so 
that  a  man  may  perceive  very  little  of  what  is  about 
him.  He  will  go  through  the  same  miles  of  space 
and  see  nothing  and  hear  nothing  that  some  ani- 
mals would  not  see  and  hear.  A  man  begins  to  die 
bodily  when  his  senses  begin  to  fail,  and  when  they 
fail  altogether  he  is  dead,  and  all  this  scene  of  sights 
and  sounds  exists  for  him  no  more. 

It  is  precisely  so  with  the  spiritual  life  and  with 
all  the  faculties  of  the  soul.  The  reason  may  be 
clear  as  a  mirror  to  receive  the  truth,  and  its  step 
strong  and  unerring  to  reach  its  conclusions.  Faith 
may  grasp  its  objects  so  royally  that  things  future 
may  be  as  things  that  are.  The  affections  may  be 
so  full,  and  so  warm  and  flowing,  that  the  soul  shall 
be  drawn  to  the  good  and  the  true  as  the  lover  to 
his  bride.  The  conscience  may  be  so  clear  and  re- 
sponsive that  the  voice  of  God  shall  fill  the  soul  as 
with  the  sound  of  "  flutes  and  soft  recorders."  And 
the  power  of  execution  may  be  so  nimble  that  a 
man's  works  shall  be  like  radiating  charities.  Such 
a  soul  is  alive  ;  and  you  see  how  one  man  may  live 
in  a  world  from  which  another  man  right  by  his  side 
is  barred  and  excluded  altogether. 


106  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

And  now  we  can  see  what  eternal  life  means.  It 
is  life  on  a  higher  plane  of  being  and  in  the  higher 
degrees  of  the  mind  ;  the  best  faculties  made  so  vivid 
and  active  that  eternal  things  are  open  to  them,  and 
their  glories  revealed.  What  is  the  life  of  heaven  ? 
Not  that  of  lazy  devotion,  but  the  human  powers 
raised  to  such  a  pitch  of  intensity  that  the  Spirit 
and  the  love  of  God  fill  them  to  the  full ;  the  reason, 
an  outlook  into  divine  and  angelic  being ;  affections 
so  burning  that  love  never  waxes  cold ;  charity  an 
overflowing  stream  that  never  dries  up ;  faith  so  as- 
sured that  prayer  always  lays  the  soul  on  the  bosom 
of  its  Lord.  This  is  life.  Because  it  puts  the  soul 
into  the  enjoyment  and  communion  with  eternal 
things,  and  opens  to  it  the  highest  landscapes  of 
eternity,  it  is  called  the  eternal  life,  and  because  un- 
like our  temporal  life  it  is  unfluctuating  and  peren- 
nial. The  element  of  time  does  not  enter  into  it  at 
all.  You  cannot  measure  it  by  months  and  years 
though  they  were  endless.  Suppose  the  life  of  an 
animal,  or  of  a  sensuous  man,  to  be  prolonged  for- 
ever ;  that  is  not  the  eternal  life  of  the  Gospel.  Sup- 
pose the  agonies  of  mortality  to  be  prolonged  for- 
ever ;  that  is  not  the  eternal  death  of  the  Gospel,  nor 
any  approach  towards  its  conception.  It  is  life  and 
death  on  the.  higher  planes  of  being,  out  of  time  and 
out  of  space,  and  which  they  cannot  measure,  though 
extended  without  end.  It  is  this  that  the  Scriptures 
describe  by  the  untranslatable  word  amuiov. 


THE   GOSPEL   CONTRASTS.  107 

We  observe,  again,  that  enjoyment  corresponds 
with  the  measure  of  life  which  one  possesses.  A  clod 
or  a  stone  enjoys  nothing  because  they  are  not  alive. 
Some  animals  are  but  just  removed  from  vegetable 
existence,  and  their  life  is  so  torpid  that  they  may 
be  killed  without  much  pain.  Men  who  have  not 
much  life  enjoy  little  and  suffer  little.  They  slug 
rather  than  live.  But  when  the  consciousness  be- 
comes intense,  the  sensibilities  keen,  and  the  affec- 
tions warm,  what  a  flood  of  enjoyment,  of  glory,  and 
of  beauty  rushes  in  upon  them,  even  from  this  lower 
universe  !  The  freedom  of  the  city  of  God  is  theirs. 
All  pleasure,  all  happiness;  come  from  the  activity 
of  the  faculties,  putting  them  in  full  correspondence 
with  their  objects. 

Such,  then,  is  the  eternal  life.  These  conceptions, 
it  is  true,  do  not  agree  with  the  notion  which  makes 
heaven  a  place  of  indolent  repose,  or  listless  devo- 
tion, into  which  we  can  be  introduced  by  vicarious 
or  legal  arrangements.  But  in  the  very  nature  of 
things,  the  state  of  the  highest  bliss  is  where  the 
soul  in  all  her  faculties  is  raised  to  such  a  pitch  of 
activity  and  quickness  of  perception  that  she  in- 
herits all  things.  She  is  not  introduced  among 
them  passively.  They  open  upon  her  as  her  own 
powers  become  enlarged  and  unlocked  to  take  them 
in  and  enjoy  them. 

II.  We  now  come  to  the  opposite  term,  death,  or 
as  we  have  it  in  the  text,  punishment,  or  pruning 


108  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

away.  Death,  as  the  opposite  of  life,  is  the  waning 
and  falling  away  of  the  human  powers.  It  is  not  the 
extinguishment  of  existence.  I  think  it  is  never 
used  in  Scripture  as  synonymous  with  annihilation. 
It  is  the  going  down  of  existence  towards  the  clods 
of  the  valley.  A  man,  I  said,  begins  to  die  phys- 
ically when  his  senses  begin  to  gjr>w  dull  and  shut 
him  in  from  the  natural  world.  The  eye  fails,  the 
ear  fails,  the  touch  fails,  all  the  avenues  from  with- 
out fail,  and  things  around  grow  blurred  and  dim. 
Finally  they  close  altogether,  and  then  the  comely 
form  lies  there  a  corpse  —  the  cold  effigy  of  a  man, 
and  all  sights  and  sounds  pass  over  it  as  they  do 
over  the  stones  and  the  trees.  There  is  a  bright 
universe  above  it  and  around  it,  but  the  decayed 
senses  have  shut  it  all  out. 

Just  so  it  is  with  spiritual  death.  All  sin  tends  to 
weaken  the  faculties  and  blunt  their  perceptions,  and 
finally  to  close  them  up.  It  is  so  with  sensual  sin. 
Violate  the  beautiful  laws  of  this  bodily  frame,  and 
how  much  more  quickly  will  its  senses  become 
feeble  and  dull,  ending  sometimes  in  the  paralysis 
of  its  nerves.  So  of  reason  and  the  moral  sense, 
and  the  kindly  sympathies  and  the  power  of  seeing 
and  acquiring  divine  truth.  Sin  makes  them  wane 
and  die  out.  And  then  the  whole  spiritual  man  is 
dead,  and  the  heavenly  world  is  shut  out  from  his 
perceptions  and  his  enjoyments,  simply  because  he 
has  no  faculty  to  put  him  in    correspondence  with 


THE   GOSPEL   CONTRASTS.  109 

them,  or  even  to  assure  him  that  they  exist.  He  is 
dead  to  them  as  a  corpse  is  dead  to  nature.  Hence 
you  find  all  through  the  Bible  that  the  consequences 
of  sin  are  represented  not  as  suffering  imposed  upon 
the  sinner,  but  as  an  inhering  destruction  and  de- 
cline. It  is  death,  destruction,  perishing,  darkness, 
pruning  away ;  and  the  meaning  is,  not  annihila- 
tion, but  that  it  tends  to  make  all  positive  existence 
fade  out  till  the  sinful  become  the  negatives  of  real 
men.  "  Except  ye  repent  ye  shall  all  likewise  per- 
ish," —  for  to  perish  is  to  wither  away  into  a  husk 
or  a  shell.  This  is  spiritual  death.  Hell  then  is  a 
negative  state,  not  positive.  It  is  the  night  side  of 
the  universe.  It  is  humanity  reversed  and  turned 
away  from  the  central  glory.  Whereas  heaven  is 
positive,  —  man  turned  towards  God,  humanity  on 
the  day-side  receiving  the  warmth  and  radiance  of 
the  Divine  Nature  and  bringing  forth  fruit  under  its 
inspiring  energy. 

III.  We  come  to  another  truth.  The  more  of 
life  there  is  to  die  out,  the  greater  is  the  convulsion 
and  the  agony.  It  is  so  with  the  body,  and  it  is 
so  with  the  soul.  If  the  human  frame  is  full  of 
strength  and  energy,  its  death  struggle  is  more  in- 
tense. So  of  the  death  of  the  soul.  Man  has  an 
angel's  faculties.  They  cannot  be  wrenched  away 
from  their  high  end  and  go  down  in  darkness  with- 
out long  and  fearful  agonies.  You  see  it  so  here 
when  the  soul  is  preyed  upon  by  the  unclean  pas- 


110  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

sions  which  the  Scriptures  call  the  infernal  fire. 
The  relief  from  this  is  only  in  the  decay  of  the  ca- 
pacity for  suffering  which  sin,  unrepented  of,  pro- 
duces at  last,  —  the  fire  of  the  soul  burning  out  its 
purer  and  nobler  material,  and  leaving  a  blackened 
crater  to  be  filled  with  snow.  Endless  torture  is 
an  impossibility  and  a  contradiction  in  terms  ;  for 
torture  destroys  finally  even  the  capacity  for  feel- 
ing torture,  and  eats  out  the  material  it  feeds  on. 
Neither  annihilation  nor  endless  suffering  are  im- 
plied in  the  second  death,  but  the  waste  and  deso- 
lation of  a  soul  which  has  lost  the  capacity  to  enjoy 
or  to  suffer  greatly,  —  though  none  may  tell  the 
mental  agony  through  which  an  immortal  mind 
must  pass  to  that  awful  ruin.  Physical  suffering  is 
of  no  account  compared  with  those  inward  tortures 
which  are  independent  of  the  bodily  senses.  Hence 
when  all  external  arrangements  are  propitious  and 
fair,  the  soul  within  may  be  wrung  from  a  deeper 
seat  of  anguish  than  mortal  weapons  can  ever 
reach ;  and  the  anguish  has  sometimes  been  so 
great  that  men  have  rushed  on  death,  in  the  hope  of 
escaping  from  it.  In  his  higher  nature  man  neither 
enjoys  nor  suffers  like  an  animal.  There  is  a  tone 
in  his  rapture  which  is  not  of  earth,  and  a  tone  that 
is  more  than  mortal  mingles  in  the  voice  of  his 
wail. 

Reasoning  thus  from  the  analogies  which  give  us 
most   surely   and  directly   the    significance   of   Ian- 


THE   GOSPEL    CONTRASTS.  Ill 

guage,  we  evolve  the  meaning  of  these  contrasts  of 
the  Christian  revelation.  They  indicate  a  retribu- 
tion of  the  most  solemn  import  to  be  wrought  out 
on  the  higher  planes  of  being.  They  point  to  a 
state  of  existence  beyond  this  present,  where  every 
man  shall  reap  down  the  harvest  which  he  sows. 
Of  what  lies  on  beyond  that  I  will  not  speculate  now 
I  do  not  know  of  any^  written  revelation  pertaining 
to  that  endless  Beyond  of  sinful  men.  There  are 
unwritten  intimations  in  the  hopes  and  aspirations 
which  the  Spirit  inspires  and  which  go  up  in  prayers 
and  intercessions  for  the  redemption  and  final  happi- 
ness of  every  immortal  soul.  These,  as  we  saw  in 
the  last  discourse,  are  not  merely  our  private  pray- 
ing, but  the  prophecyings  of  the  Spirit  through  us 
and  telling  us  of  things  to  be  ;  for  I  will  not  be- 
lieve that  our  private  praying  is  more  humane  than 
the  Eternal  Spirit  that  inspires  it.  It  warrants  the 
belief  that  there  will  be  no  unnecessary  pang  in 
the  universe,  or  down  the  eternities,  though  it  does 
not  reveal  to  us  the  epoch  or  the  methods  of  the 
final  restoration.  Such  a  revelation,  thrown  down 
upon  us  externally,  might  interfere,  perhaps,  with  the 
best  achievements  of  our  probation  now  and  here. 
There  is  enough  revealed  to  disclose  the  fearful  nat- 
ure and  consequences  of  sin  ;  for  the  rest,  I  trust 
to  the  Infinite  goodness  without  seeking  for  that 
which  is  held  in  the  Divine  Reserve. 

(i.)  Two  points  in  the  conclusion  are  urged  upon 


112  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

us.  The  mission  of  Christ  and  the  nature  of  his 
salvation  reveal  themselves  to  us  with  great  clearness. 
"  I  have  come,"  He  says,  "  that  ye  might  have  life, 
and  that  ye  might  have  it  more  abundantly."  He 
gives  life  because  He  imparts  inward  energy.  He 
comes  not  to  repress  and  cripple  the  reason,  but  to 
enlarge  it,  strengthen  it,  open  wide  its  eye-sight,  and 
lift  it  up  into  divine  illuminations.  He  comes  to  un- 
lock the  deepest  fountains  of  love  and  make  them 
flow,  and  this  He  does  by  turning  upon  us  all  the  Di- 
vine graces  and  charms.  He  comes  to  make  the 
moral  sense  so  lively  and  responsive  that  its  vibra- 
tions shall  fill  the  soul  with  angelic  harmonies.  He 
comes  to  fortify  the  will  and  make  it  like  flint  for  the 
right  and  the  true.  He  comes  to  strengthen  the 
power  of  doing  and  give  us  drafts  on  God's  omnip- 
otence for  godlike  achievement.  He  comes  not  to 
purchase  heaven  for  us  —  so  much  blood  for  so  much 
salvation  —  but  so  to  build  up  the  man  within  through 
living  faith,  and  so  to  open  out  his  mind  to  all  the 
good  in  the  universe,  that  it  shall  be  heaven  to  him 
wherever  he  moves  ;  not  to  crush  the  faculties  un- 
der fear  and  cowardice,  but  to  touch  every  one  with 
a  divine  impulse,  and  make  it  go  with  gladness  to  its 
work.  "  He  that  believeth  on  me  hath  everlasting 
life,  and  I  will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day." 

(2.)  Again,  the  nature  of  Christ's  Church,  and  why 
it  is  a  Church  militant  and  aggressive,  and  not  dor- 
mant and  passive,  becomes  obvious  in  the  light  of  our 


THE  GOSPEL   CONTRASTS.  II3 

subject.  It  is  because  in  the  former  there  is  life, 
and  scope  for  the  putting  forth  and  enlargement  of  all 
the  powers  of  an  immortal  being  ;  whereas  in  passiv- 
ity and  asceticism  the  faculties  fall  away  and  go  down 
towards  death.  If  you  hear  truly  and  distinctly  "  the 
voice  of  the  Son  of  Man,"  it  will  be  to  you  a  trum- 
pet call  to  active  duty  and  not  a  lull  into  solitary  rest. 
It  is  the  trump  that  wakes  the  sleepers  from  their 
graves  to  a  resurrection  of  life,  lest  if  they  sleep  on 
it  will  be  to  a  resurrection  of  damnation.  The  high- 
est peace,  that  which  alone  is  eternal,  is  won  through 
power.  More  than  ever  the  voice  of  the  great  Head 
of  the  Church  is  sounding  through  it.  "  The  time  is 
coming,  and  now  is,  when  the  dead  shall  hear  the 
voice  of  the  Son  of  Man,  and  they  that  hear  shall  be 
alive." 


A  SONG  IN  THE  MINOR  KEY. 

I  stand  on  Time's  mysterious  brink, 

And  send  an  onward  gaze 
Where  throngs  of  spirits  rise  or  sink 

At  parting  of  the  ways. 

Upward,  towards  the  sun-lit  rooms, 
They  climb  the  shining  stairs  ; 

Or,  downward  through  the  swirling  glooms, 
Sink  to  their  long  despairs. 

And  happy  thrills  of  song  and  lyre 

Come  from  the  angel-train, 
And  upward  through  the  crater-fire 

The  mufHed  groans  of  pain. 

And  as  I  heard,  my  song  uprose 

To  catch  that  heavenly  air, 
When  straightway  on  my  lips  it  froze 

To  agonizing  prayer. 

O  ye  who  climb  the  stairs  above, 
And  crowd  up  nigh  the  throne, 

How  can  ye  sing  redeeming  Love 
And  see  its  work  half  done  ? 

O  thou  great  Mercy  !  folding  all 
Beneath  thy  brooding  wing,  — 

Those  who  to  thee  for  pity  call 
Or  their  redemption  sing,  — 


Il6  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

I  ask  not  tnrough  the  highest  room 

Of  heavenly  state  to  go, 
But  downward  through  the  thickest  gloom 

Of  any  .child  of  woe. 

Did  not  thy  Christ  go  down  to  hell 

And  cut  its  brazen  bars, 
Before  he  sought  his  coronal  — 

His  golden  crown  of  stars  ? 

'  Are  they  not  all  my  kith  and  kin, 
And  children,  Lord,  of  thine, 
Alike  who  beg  in  rags  of  sin,  — 
In  jeweled  robes  who  shine  ? 

We  all  are  beggars  ;  poor  and  bare 

We  stand  before  thy  face, 
Save  when  in  borrowed  robes  we  flare, 

Or  shimngs  of  thy  grace. 

Here  I  will  raise  no  song  of  glee, 
And  hold  no  waving  palm  ; 

I  breathe  upon  the  minor  key 
My  penitential  psalm. 

I  share  my  brother's  grief  —  I  list 

The  undertones  of  pain, 
And  pray  to  see  thy  conquering  Christ 

Go  up  with  all  his  train. 


VIII. 

TREADING  THE  WINE-PRESS. 

Isaiah  lxiii.  3.     I  have  trodden  the  wine-press  alone. 

THIS  sentence  is  from  one  of  those  chapters  of 
the  old  prophecies  which  are  generally  un- 
derstood to  foreshadow  the  Messiah.  But  as  fore- 
shadowed here,  he  is  not  the  temporal  prince  nor 
the  conquering  hero  of  the  Jewish  imagination.  It 
seems  to  me,  in  reading  these  chapters,  that  the 
future  Christ  had  arisen  on  the  vision  pf  the  prophet 
in  his  true  character  and  his  moral  grandeur,  and 
that  the  prophet  is  straining  his  vision  to  get  it  clear 
of  Jewish  hallucinations.  A  form  rises  away  in  the 
distant  perspective,  which  he  cannot  present  to  his 
reader  in  any  such  outline  as  the  painter  gives  to 
his  picture,  or  the  sculptor  to  his  statue,  partly  be- 
cause it  is  beyond  finite  conception,  and  partly  be- 
cause the  vista  is  filled  with  Jewish  haze.  A  char- 
acter is  sketched,  nevertheless,  such  as  had  never 
appeared  in  history,  and  with  such  combination  of 
attributes  and  qualities  as  no  writer  would  sketch 
from  his  own  fancy.  He  is  divine,  yet  human  ;  tri- 
umphant, yet  weak  and  suffering ;  royal,  yet  with  no 
lineage  that  men  can  trace  ;  glorious  in  his  apparel, 
yet  with  no  comeliness  that  men  can  desire  ;  tread- 


Il8  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

ing  down  his  enemies,  yet  drawing  upon  Himself  the 
sorrows  and  iniquities  of  all.  But  there  is  nothing 
more  striking  in  the  whole  portraiture  than  the 
lonely  greatness  of  the  man.  He  stands  out  soli- 
tary. He  treads  the  wine-press  alone.  His  height 
is  so  great  that  it  lifts  him  away  from  kindred  sym- 
pathies and  ties.  A  chasm  lies  between  Him  and  all 
other  men,  and  between  Him  and  God,  for  He  is 
stricken  and  afflicted  of  God  himself. 

The  Christ  is  the  only  being  who  ever  filled  up 
this  vast  foreshadowing  with  historic  reality.  And 
no  fact  in  the  Saviour's  life  is  more  strangely  im- 
pressive than  this  of  his  absolute  solitude.  For 
what  solitude  is  like  that  of  being  alone  in  the  midst 
of  crowds,  among  a  great  company,  and  yet  so  wide 
apart  from  it  that  the  distance  between  is  altogether 
impassable.  He  drew  around  Him  a  band  of  disci- 
ples and  believers  ;  but  the  one  that  stood  nearest, 
and  leaned  on  his  breast,  remained  in  almost  total 
ignorance  of  the  being  he  followed,  until  after  his 
death  and  resurrection.  He  stood  under  a  heavy 
load  of  mortal  anguish,  when  there  was  no  one  to 
help  Him  bear  it,  or  even  to  know  it  was  laid  upon 
Him.  The  gulf  of  separation  even  came  between 
Him  and  the  Eternal  Father.  And  when  the  load 
was  heaviest,  and  He  went  away  by  Himself  and  fell 
beneath  it,  no  mortal  was  a  witness  to  it,  and  even 
his  disciples  were  fast  asleep. 

No  solitude  is  like  his.     And  yet  it  represents  a 


TREADING    THE    WINE-PRESS.  1 1 9 

condition  of  human  nature.  For  this  very  reason 
the  Saviour  bore  the  trial,  that  He  might  come  to 
every  one  else  who  has  the  same  trial  to  bear,  and 
clothe  him  with  strength  from  on  high.  For  every 
one  of  us  must  bear  it  in  our  place  and  degree. 
The  longer  we  live,  and  the  more  our  being  becomes 
individualized,  the  more  shall  we  find  ourselves 
alone.  Every  man  is  separated  from  every  other 
man,  and  probably  no  person  was  ever  perfectly  un- 
derstood by  any  other  person.  There  are  common 
tastes  and  feelings  and  sympathies ;  but  at  the 
same  time  there  is  an  individualism  that  keeps  apart, 
and  refuses  to  yield  itself  to  the  crowd.  No  one 
knows  his  fellow  a  great  way  beneath  the  surface. 
There  is  something  in  you  that  has  never  been  dis- 
closed to  your  neighbor  who  sits  beside  you, — 
something  in  him  to  which  you  are  a  stranger,  and 
with  which  you  cannot  intermeddle.  Looks,  lan- 
guage, actions  reveal  a  little,  but  there  is  that  in 
every  one  which  finds  not  a  symbol  nor  a  tongue. 

This  fact  has  a  very  important  bearing  on  the 
whole  subject  of  human  trial.  As  your  eye  rests 
on  almost  any  group  of  people  whom  accident  may 
have  brought  together,  you  would  see  ordinarily 
nothing  but  cheerful  appearances  and  salutations. 
If  the  concourse  were  gathered  from  what  are  usu- 
ally called  the  favored  classes, — those,  namely,  who 
are  not  subjected  to  the  hard  necessities  of  toil,  and 
have  abundant  leisure  for  enjoyment,  —  you  will  find, 


120  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

perhaps,  not  only  cheerfulness,  but  hilarity  and 
gayety.  Happy  people  !  you  would  say.  They  taste 
the  sweet  without  the  bitter  ;  they  drink  the  wine 
of  life  without  the  lees. 

But  could  you  follow  that  concourse  as  they  sep- 
arate one  by  one,  and  part  off  each  to  his  own  place 
and  home  ;  could  you  enter  that  home,  and  look 
back  through  the  continuous  line  of  its  history,  you 
would  generally  find  that  each  went  to  some  place 
of  sorrowful  recollections ;  that  in  the  sunshine 
of  every  house  there  was  a  blank  spot,  or  it  may  be 
the  outlines  of  a  fearful  shadow.  I  do  not  say  that 
this  will  always  be  found  true,  at  any  one  moment, 
of  all  the  families  you  might  name,  but  I  say  it  is 
true  of  every  family  before  its  history  is  wound  up. 
Not  a  hearthstone  shall  you  find  on  which  some 
shadow  has  not  fallen  or  is  about  to  fall.  Further 
than  this,  you  will  probably  find  that  there  are  few 
households  which  do  not  cherish  some  sorrow  not 
known  to  the  world  ;  who  have  not  some  trial  which 
is  their  peculiar  messenger,  and  which  they  do  not 
talk  about  except  among  themselves.  Some  hope 
that  has  been  blasted  ;  some  expectation  dashed 
down  ;  some  wrong,  real  or  supposed,  which  some 
member  of  the  household  has  suffered  ;  trembling 
anxieties  lest  that  other  member  will  not  succeed  ; 
trials  from  the  peculiar  temperament  of  somebody 
in  the  house,  or  some  environment  that  touches  it 
sharply  from    without  ;    some    thorn    in    the   flesh ; 


TREADING    THE    WINE-PRESS.  121 

some  physical  disability  that  cripples  our  energies 
when  we  want  to  use  them  the  most ;  some  spot  in 
the  house  where  Death  has  left  his  track,  or  painful 
listenings  to  hear  his  stealthy  footsteps  coming  on : 
these,  and  a  thousand  other  things,  render  it  certain 
that  there  is  no  house  which  must  not  some  day 
have  a  secret  shadow  on  its  hearth. 

Further  than  this,  even  ;  there  is  no  individual 
whose  experience  has  any  breadth  and  depth,  who  has 
not  some  trial  which  you  know  nothing  about,  and 
which  perhaps  no  one  knows  but  himself.  This  we 
may  assume,  —  partly  from  the  fact  that  there  are 
struggles  of  the  hidden  life  where  none  but  God  can 
be  a  helper  ;  that  there  are  doubts,  fears,  tremblings, 
disappointments,  combats,  hopes  that  rise  and  fall  ; 
which  always  gather  about  it, —  partly,  too,  from  the 
fact  that  the  most  pungent  and  wasting  sorrows  to 
which  the  human  heart  becomes  a  prey  are  the  very 
ones  which  retire  farthest  inward  and  refuse  even  to 
be  breathed  into  the  ear  of  friendship.  For  the  hard- 
est trials  of  all  are  those  of  the  spiritual  nature,  where 
every  man  wrestles  with  his  own  temptations,  which 
are  different  from  any  other  man's,  and  give  him  an 
experience  which  is  all  his  own,  and  which  no  one 
can  understand  but  himself ;  where  even  the  best 
men,  to  all  outward  seeming,  have  felt  that  desertion 
which  the  Christ  had  when  he  prayed  the  Father 
not  to  forsake  him,  and  where  sometimes  the  great 
conflict  of  life  goes  on  beneath  the  glare  which 
grandeur  or  station  has  thrown  around  it. 


122  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

I  assume  it,  then,  as  an  undeniable  fact,  that  while 
there  are  vast  inequalities  in  appearances  touching 
our  natural  allotments  of  joy  and  sorrow,  yet  when 
you  lay  off  these  appearances  and  come  to  the 
naked  facts  of  the  case,  it  is  quite  otherwise.  The 
secret  trials  of  human  hearts  put  them  on  ground  of 
equality  before  God.  And  though  no  man's  trials 
are  just  like  any  other  man's  yet  they  are  all  his  own, 
and  every  soul  has  its  own  secret  burden  to  bear. 
There  are  common  griefs  and  condolences  ;  yet  after 
all  these  have  been  talked  over,  each  has  something 
left  which  he  has  not  shared  with  his  neighbor,  and 
that  may  be  the  very  thing  that  touches  him  most 
nearly  and  tenderly.  So  that,  while  there  are  com- 
mon burdens  to  be  borne  .and  common  consolations 
to  be  shared,  it  is  also  true  in  a  most  important 
sense,  that  every  man  must  tread  the  wine-press 
alone. 

Let  us  now  see  if  we  cannot  derive  some  very  im- 
portant lessons  from  this  economy  of  things.  What 
are  the  teachings  of  these  secret  trials  ? 

I.  The  first  is  this,  —  to  cease  from  all  those  false 
comparisons  that  breed  discontents  and  envyings 
amongst  men.  Almost  every  individual,  at  some 
period  of  his  life,  seems  to  himself  to  be  separated  by 
Divine  Providence  to  some  peculiar  hardship,  and  he 
wonders  why  this  is  so.  Why  am  I  singled  out,  and 
thrust  beyond  the  circle  of  Divine  favors  ?  Why  is 
it  that  I  have  this  burden  laid  upon  me,  while  this 


TREADIXG   THE  WINE-PRESS.  123 

other  individual  and  that  other  family  send  forth 
their  little  ones  like  a  flock,  and  their  children 
dance  ?  Very  likely,  if  his  feelings  were  candidly 
analyzed,  he  would  find  himself  at  issue  both  with 
his  neighbor  and  his  God,  because  while  he  had 
failed,  some  one  else  had  succeeded,  and  outstripped 
him  in  the  race  of  life.  He  does  not  remember  that 
appearances  serve  as  a  protection  to  keep  out  the 
glare  of  the  world  from  the  sacred  privacies  of  the 
heart.  If  the  protecting  coverings  were  all  swept 
away  under  which  each  one  struggles  with  his  lot 
and  treads  the  wine-press  alone,  every  pretext  for 
envy  or  discontent  on  this  score  would  disappear, 
and  every  man  would  see  that  every  other  man  was 
separated  to  some  burden  quite  as  peculiar  as  his 
own. 

And  here  we  have  room  to  remark  on  the  admira- 
ble compensations  of  the  Divine  Providence.  Every 
man  has  his  own  adversary  to  struggle  with  apart, 
and  his  own  victory  to  gain,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  God  designs  to  educe  from  our  diversified  ex- 
perience every  variety  of  the  graces  and  virtues. 
He  never  repeats  Himself  in  nature  ;  but  from  the 
cedar  of  Lebanon  to  the  lily  of  the  vale,  He  seeks  a 
fresh  evolution  and  efflorescence  out  of  his  own 
grandeur  and  beauty,  that  infinite  diversity  may 
make  up  the  infinite  completeness  and  harmony. 
Just  so  it  is  in  human  character  and  moral  attain- 
ment.    God  never  repeats  Himself  here.     He  gives 


124  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

to  each  a  varied  experience.  We  march  not  in  ser- 
ried numbers  to  conquer  a  common  foe,  but  He 
leads  us  through  separate  paths,  each  one  to  strug- 
gle with  his  own  adversary  alone,  that,  when  the 
victory  is  gained,  and  the  crown  is  won,  each  shall 
have  in  it  a  leaf  or  a  chaplet  which  is  unlike  any 
other,  so  that  all  together  may  reflect  every  possible 
hue  of  the  Divine  loveliness. 

II.  A  second  lesson  comes  to  us  from  these  secret 
trials.  If  the  fact  were  pondered  and  appreciated  as 
it  should  be,  it  would  strengthen  very  much  that  bond 
of  sympathy  and  brotherhood  which  ought  to  exist 
among  all  the  members  of  the  social  state.  I  doubt 
whether  in  this  our  earthly  condition,  we  ever  come 
to  the  full  feeling  of  sympathy  and  brotherhood, 
without  the  consciousness  of  a  common  frailty  and 
sorrow.  You  may  reason  with  men  very  finely,  ply- 
ing the  argument  that  we  have  one  Father,  that  we 
are  all  partakers  of  his  nature,  and  therefore  are  all 
brethren.  Very  true,  but  men  will  not  care  for 
it  in  the  day  of  their  strength  and  pride,  and  you 
never  will  melt  any  man's  heart  towards  his  fel- 
lows by  mere  beautiful  theorizing.  But  suppose 
some  common  calamity  were  to  sweep  over  these 
people  and  bend  them  low ;  suppose  some  angel  of 
sorrow  were  to  pass  over  every  house  and  leave  his 
victim  ;  it  would  do  more,  a  thousand  times,  to  make 
every  man  feel  that  he  is  a  part  of  every  other  man 
than  all  our  fine  philosophy.     But  what  I  have  put 


TREADING    THE   WINE-PRESS.  1 25 

as  hypothesis  is  simple  and  sober  fact,  though  the 
fact  is  veiled  under  thin  and  artificial  disguises,  for  I 
say  to  you  that  the  angel  does  pass  over  every  house 
and  leave  his  victim  ;  and  if  you  could  draw  the 
curtain  aside,  you  would  see  he  had  been  treading 
the  wine-press  behind  it. 

It  was  found  when  one  of  the  great  ocean  steam- 
ers was  on  the  verge  of  shipwreck,  the  passengers, 
who  represented  almost  every  sect  in  Christendom, 
and  who  before  had  kept  apart  in  groups,  forgot  all 
their  sectarianism  in  the  presence  of  a  common 
danger,  and  they  knelt'  and  prayed  together  as  one 
family  in  Christ,  about  to  be  summoned  to  his  bar. 
Precisely  so  it  would  be  in  the  great  voyage  of  life. 
Let  the  fact  be  fully  pondered,  that  there  is  no  Uto- 
pian independence  of  the  common  lot,  that  there  is 
a  woe  that  presses  down  separately  on  every  man's 
soul,  and  that  he,  like  myself,  is  wrestling  hard  with 
it,  though  it  comes  to  each  man  in  variant  shape, 
and  suited  to  his  condition,  —  let  this  be  pondered 
as  it  should  be,  and  every  man  will  look  upon  every 
other  man  as  bound  to  himself  by  a  more  interesting 
and  tender  tie.  Yea,  when  I  meet  the  man  of  show 
and  equipage,  I  shall  not  be  found  gazing  so  much 
on  the  glitter  and  the  gilding,  as  musing  with  myself 
how  it  fares  with  that  man  under  the  protecting 
shadows  where  he  treads  the  wine-press  alone. 

There  was  a  fierce  battle  fought,  and  a  vic- 
tory  won  ;    and   foremost    in    the    battle,  and  most 


126  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

honored  in  the  rejoicings  of  victory,  was  a  brave  old 
count  whose  heart  and  arm  seemed  both  to  be 
made  of  steel.  The  feast  is  over  and  the  rejoicings 
are  hushed,  and  the  stillness  of  night  has  come  down 
upon  the  plain.  But  lo  !  there  is  a  taper  burning  in 
the  tent  of  the  iron  count,  while  all  but  the  guard 
have  gone  to  rest.  Why  sleeps  he  not  upon  his 
laurels  ?  Why  burns  his  lamp  at  midnight  after  the 
day  has  covered  him  with  glory  ?  They  lift  a  cor- 
ner of  the  curtain  and  look  in,  and  the  iron  count 
sits  alone  over  the  body  of  his  dead  son,  and  great 
drops  are  standing  in  his  eyes.  A  German  poet  has 
described  it,  and  a  German  painter  has  put  it  upon 
canvas.  And  it  describes  very  well  what  takes 
place  after  most  of  the  conflicts  of  life,  after  the 
victory  is  won  and  the  festivities  are  over,  and  the 
chief  man  among  them  treads  the  wine-press  alone. 

III.  A  third  lesson,  and  still  more  important.  For 
aught  that  yet  appears,  there  need  have  been  no 
burden  to  any  man  which  others  might  not  share, 
no  grief  of  the  heart  which  he  might  not  tell  to  his 
neighbor.  And  yet  every  man  is  separated  to  his 
own  burden.  Each  has  a  reserved  fund  of  trouble, 
which  to  him  is  a  special  dispensation.  Now  see 
the  necessity  of  this !  If  I  could  share  everything 
with  my  fellow,  I  should  have  nothing  left  to  share 
specially  and  sacredly  with  Him  who  bends  his  eai 
from  the  heavens  for  this  very  purpose.  I  should 
come  to  depend  altogether  on  human  aid  ;  in  which 


TREADING    THE   WINE-PRESS.  1 27 

case  my  mind  would  go  out  laterally  to  my  fellows, 
and  not  upward  continually  unto  God.  Every  trial 
which  you  have  that  other  people  cannot  understand 
ought  to  be  a  secret  tie  that  binds  you  more  closely 
and  indissolubly  to  the  throne.  I  doubt  whether 
God  ever  won  a  soul  to  heaven  on  which  He  had  not 
first  let  fall  some  separate  drops  of  grief,  which  from 
their  very  nature  are  a  secret  between  the  soul  and 
her  God.  This  holds  especially  true  of  that  sense  of 
unworthiness,  that  haunting  conviction  of  sinfulness, 
or  a  spiritual  nature  unrestored,  which  to  many 
minds  is  the  most  pungent  of  all  hidden  sorrows, 
and  which  from  its  very  profundity  no  one  can  share 
and  few  can  comprehend.  It  is  in  these  grapplings 
with  some  secret  woe,  where  all  human  help  is  un- 
availing and  where  no  human  eye  must  look  in,  that 
the  soul  lays  hold  mightily  upon  God,  and  the 
strengthening  angel  comes  down  to  her,  and  she 
finally  prevails,  and  puts  on  victory  like  a  robe. 
This  is  the  highest  meaning,  and  this  the  grand  re- 
sult of  all  secret  trials  rightly  improved.  I  doubt 
whether  any  saint  who  has  now  passed  on  and  holds 
the  waving  palm  in  his  hand,  without  this  economy 
would  ever  have  gained  the  laurel  and  the  crown. 
To  be  dependent  on  others  for  sympathy  and  com- 
fort makes  you  weak ;  to  be  self-dependent  makes 
you  weaker  still,  for  that  fails  you  in  the  day  of  your 
greatest  need  ;  to  become  independent  is  a  dream  of 
your  pride,  for  no  such  thing  is  possible  ;  to  become 


128  SERMONS  AXD  SOXGS. 

dependent  on  God  makes  you  strong  ;  yea,  clothes 
you  out  of  his  own  Almightiness,  and  draws  you  up 
into  his  safety  and  refuge. 

There  is  a  practice  familiarly  known  in  the 
churches  as  the  "  relation  of  experiences."  It  is  well 
sometimes,  and  under  proper  guards  and  limits.  In- 
deed, I  think  with  us  there  is  no  danger  whatever, 
and  that  there  is  too  little  confluence  of  heart  with 
heart,  and  too  little  conference  on  the  highest 
themes.  But  when  the  whole  heart's  experience  is 
laid  open,  we  always  feel  that  piety  has  lost  its 
special  grace,  and  that  the  finest  affections  have 
been  soiled  by  coarse  and  vulgar  handling.  As  if 
God  had  said  distinctly,  I  claim  your  special  confi- 
dence. There  is  a  region  of  experience  where  no 
priest  shall  come  between  us,  where  we  will  tread 
the  wine-press  and  gain  the  victory  alone.  And 
here  precisely  is  the  spot  where  God  fastens  on  the 
soul  the  cords  which  grapple  her  closest  to  his  em- 
brace. 

In  all  this  course  of  reasoning,  I  have  considered 
the  argument  addressed  to  those  whose  experience 
has  not  been  solely  on  the  surface  of  things,  but  has 
gone  somewhat  into  the  deeper  mysteries  of  human 
nature.  That  there  are  natures  so  cold  and  so  shal- 
low as  to  have  no  consciousness  of  trial  so  long  as 
the  senses  are  gratified  and  the  course  of  events 
which  bears  them  on  has  had  no  breaks  nor  eddies, 
is  certainly  true.     There  are  such  persons,  men  and 


TREADING    THE   WINE-PRESS.  1 29 

women,  who  have  had  n©  history  but  the  sheerest 
commonplace  story  to  be  read  by  all  men.  What 
we  say  is,  that  every  one,  before  he  attains  the  Chris- 
tian heaven,  must  be  parted  off  to  himself,  and  what 
he  is  spiritually  and  what  he  needs  must  be  brought 
clearly  to  his  individual  convictions.  There  is  a 
realm  of  being  where  he  must  walk  alone  and  gain 
the  victory  alone,  before  he  can  go  up  higher.  We 
may  lose  ourselves  in  affairs  for  a  while,  but  the 
man  around  whom  successful  fortune  has  piled  up 
its  ingots,  or  whom  the  crowds  follow  with  applause, 
has  a  spiritual  need  within  him.  And  if  he  does  not 
feel  it  now,  he  will  with  tenfold  urgency  when  this 
outward  show  of  things  has  crumbled  away  like  the 
framework  of  a  dream,  and  the  deeper  and  more  sub- 
lime mysteries  open  clearly  into  his  consciousness. 
"  Do  you  not  see,"  wrote  one  on  whom  had  been 
lavished  all  the  good  this  outward  world  can  possibly 
bestow,  "  that  I  am  dying  of  melancholy  in  the  height 
of  fortune  which  once  my  imagination  could  scarce 
have  conceived  ?  I  have  had  a  high  relish  for  pleas- 
ure. I  have  spent  years  in  intellectual  pleasures, 
but  I  protest  to  you  that  every  one  of  these  condi- 
tions leaves  in  the  mind  a  dismal  vacuity."  There 
is,  indeed,  one  hidden  and  consuming  woe  which 
some  time  must  prey  upon  peer  and  peasant  alike, 
when  each  comes  to  himself  and  stands  alone  on  his 
rock  of  independence,  with  a  gulf  yawning  visibly 
between  himself  and  his  God.  It  becomes  distinct 
9 


130  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

in  the  consciousness  and  makes  itself  audible  as 
earth  recedes  with  its  shams  and  shows.  It  is  the 
secret  sorrow  of  many  a  heart  too  proud  to  own  it  to 
itself,  and  seeking  diversion  from  itself  by  the  trin- 
kets of  human  vanity. 

Finally,  there  is  one  passage  of  life  through  which 
we  must  pass  alike,  and  in  which  there  is  no  mortal 
arm  to  lean  upon,  no  mortal  ear  in  which  to  tell  the 
secret  of  our  troubled  spirits.  "  All  men,"  says  an 
eloquent  writer,  "  come  into  this  world  alone  and 
leave  it  alone.  Even  a  child  has  a  dread  whisper- 
ing consciousness,  that  if  he  should  be  called  upon 
to  travel  into  God's  presence,  no  gentle  nurse  will  be 
allowed  to  lead  him  by  the  hand,  no  mother  to  carry 
him  in  her  arms,  no  little  sister  to  share  his  trepida- 
tions. King  and  priest,  warrior  and  maiden,  philoso- 
pher and  child,  all  must  walk  these  mighty  galleries 
alone.  The  solitude,  therefore,  which  in  this  world 
appalls  and  fascinates,  is  but  the  echo  of  a  far  deeper 
solitude  through  which  he  has  passed,  and  of  another 
solitude  deeper  still,  through  which  he  has  to  pass,  — 
reflex  of  one  solitude,  prefiguration  of  another." 

And  yet  this  is  rather  the  appearance  of  reality 
than  the  reality  itself ;  for  not  alone  shall  we  tread 
those  silent  and  solemn  galleries.  We  shall  enter 
them  alone  ;  but  happy  is  he  who,  when  the  curtain 
rises,  shall  see  on  the  other  side  the  opening  gate  in 
which  stands  the  guiding  and  beckoning  angel. 


THE  SILENT  PRAYER. 

Storms  were  lowering  in  the  welkin,  and  the  gray  clouds 

thicker  grew, 
And  the  pine-trees  stood  as  mourners  which  the  winds  were 

sobbing  through  ; 

And  that  night  we  gathered  closer  when  we  heard  the  east 
wind  blow, 
"  Oh,  how  cold  it  must  be  yonder,  sleeping  out  beneath  the 
snow  !  " 

Friends  came  in,  and  close  around  us  stood  between  us  and 

the  storm, 
And  we  wept  and  leaned  against  them,  with  their  great  hearts 

beating  warm. 

Words,   how  vain  !  but  words   they  spake   not,  while  their 

thoughts  rose  warm  and  clear 
On  their  silent  prayer-wings  upward  to  the  heavenly  Father 

near. 

Oh,  what  tones  there  are  in  silence,  solemn  as  the  toll  of 

bells  ! 
Tolling  through  the  heart  forever,  tolling  through  its  empty 

cells  ; 

Silence  over  all  the  playground,  hushing  childhood's  merry 

glee; 
Silence  in  the  curtained  chamber,  where  the  music  warbled 

free  ; 


132  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

Silence  on  the  graves  out  yonder,  silence  round  the  empty 

chair  ; 
But  the  silence  speaketh  never  like  the  silence  of  the  prayer. 

When  some  truce  from  care  and  sorrow  in  the  arms  of  sleep 
we  found, 

Dreaming  dreams  of  little  coffins,  and  a  pale  face  under- 
ground, 

Came  a  glory   down  the   welkin,  cleaving  darkness  like   a 

wedge ; 
As  the  sculptor  cleaves  the  marble,  cutting  clean  along   the 

edge, 

So  it  cut  the  solid  darkness  till  it  touched  the  ground  below, 
Where   our   little    May  lay  sleeping   underneath  the  winter 
snow  ; 

And  the  glory  tipped  the  pine-trees,  and  I  heard  the  southern 

breeze 
Touch  them  soft  as  any  fingers  ever  touched  the  organ  keys  ; 

And  a  low  and  rhythmic  murmur  through  the  heart  this  music 
made  : 
"  There  is  spring  without  the  winter,  where  the  May-flowers 
never  fade." 

Thrice  and  four  times  came  the  music  like  a  distant  travelled 

song, 
Coming  nearer,  nearer,  nearer,  growing  clear  and   growing 

strong  ; 

First  in  sweetly  plaintive  whispers,  like  a  breeze  o'er  aspho- 
dels, 

Breaking  thence  in  broad  effulgence,  like  the  music  blown 
from  shells. 


THE  SILEXT  PRAYER.  1 33 

Then  it  waked  me.     Was  it  only  some  chance  vision  of  the 

night  ? 
Or   the   angel   softly   muffled   lest  his   garments   shine   too 

bright  ? 


Do  not  all  the  highest  tokens  sent  in  answer  to  our  prayers, 
Come  along  some  curtained   passage  down   the   bright  and 
heavenly  stairs  ? 

I  know  nothing.     Years   have  vanished   since   that  night   of 

wintry  storm, 
When  the  silent  prayer  went  upward  from  those  great  hearts 

beating  warm  ; 

But  the  answer  soundeth  ever  o'er  the  graves  beneath  the 
snow,  — 

THERE  IS  SPRING  WITHOUT   THE   WINTER,  WHERE  THE   MAY- 
FLOWERS   ALWAYS   BLOW. 


IX. 
THE  NEW  CREATION. 

2  Corinthians  v.  17.  If  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new 

creature;    old  things  are  passed  away j  behold,  all  things 
are  become  new. 

SO  early  as  the  middle  of  the  second  century  we 
find  that  works  were  written  against  Christi- 
anity by  heathen  philosophers,  and  written,  too,  with 
great  subtlety  and  skill.  The  keenest  of  these  writ- 
ers makes  it  one  of  his  sharpest  points  of  objection 
that  the  Gospel  professes  to  accomplish  impossi- 
bilities ;  that  the  idea  of  changing  human  nature 
and  making  it  over  is  utterly  absurd.  To  this  the 
Christian  apologists  replied :  Come  and  see  for 
yourselves  ;  come  into  our  assemblies  and  see  what 
and  who  we  are,  and  from  what  ranks  and  condi- 
tions we  have  been  gathered.  They  even  affirm 
that  men  clean  gone  down  in  corruption,  and  so  far 
gone  that  the  body  was  gone  also  —  insane  people, 
demoniacs,  cripples,  blind  men,  were  restored  every 
day ;  the  Spirit  operating  from  within  calming,  heal- 
ing, and  cleansing  at  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  sending 
health  through  the  whole  moral  and  physical  frame. 
Two  things  appear  constantly  in  these  early  histo- 


136  SERMOXS  AXD  SOXGS. 

ries, —  the  depth  into  which  human  nature  had  sunk, 
and  the  power  of  Christianity,  not  to  develop  it,  but 
to  lift  it  up  and  create  it  anew.  Indeed,  the  history 
of  the  Church  for  two  hundred  years  seems  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  book  of  Acts,  and  it  demonstrates 
beyond  all  cavil  that  the  Gospel  was  not  a  normal 
product  of  human  wisdom,  but  a  projection  into 
human  affairs  out  of  God;s  sovereignty,  out  of  the 
fullness  of  the  Godhead  dwelling  in  Christ. 

The  power  of  the  Gospel  to  create  anew  has  been 
its  standing  miracle  in  all  the  Christian  ages.  It  is 
its  highest  and  most  divine  authentication.  Celsus 
was  right,  looking  from  his  own  point  of  view. 
No  mere  human  culture  can  change  the  nature  of 
man.  It  can  only  cover  over,  civilize,  and  adorn. 
But  those  in  whom  sin  has  become  a  second  nature 
are  the  very  persons  in  whom  the  Gospel  has 
wrought  its  most  wondrous  transformations,  from 
Paul  and  Augustine  down  to  the  Wesleyan  revivals 
of  the  last  century,  and  the  most  remarkable  conver- 
sions of  to-day. 

In  the  progress  of  the  Christian  ages  a  great 
many  sects  have  arisen  with  controversies  without 
end.  But  in  all  sects,  and  under  all  forms  of  belief, 
so  far  as  the  Gospel  has  done  its  work,  it  has  been 
one  and  the  same  ;  the  miracles  which  began  in  Pal- 
estine continued  down  all  the  centuries,  changing 
not  the  morals  and  manners  only,  but  the  very  nat- 
ure of  sinful  men.     The  Gospel   may  be  obscured ; 


THE  NEW  CREATION.  1 37 

men  may  eliminate  its  vital  truths,  and  put  their  own 
notions  in  their  place,  but  so  far  as  it  is  the  Gospel 
it  works  the  old  miracles  over  again.  Measures  may 
differ  ;  Christian  forms  may  differ.  The  revival  sys- 
tem may  be  worked  here,  and  a  more  staid  litur- 
gical system  may  be  worked  there  ;  men,  according 
to  taste  and  education,  may  run  into  Methodism 
here,  into  High  Church  there,  into  Broad  Church 
somewhere  else ;  the  real  Christian  work  is  one 
and  the  same  —  to  bring  out  of  the  chaos  of  human 
nature  a  new  creation  in  Christ  Jesus  —  and  any- 
thing that  fails  of  this  has  not  Christ  in  it,  and  is 
not  the  Gospel. 

But  let  me  shape  the  argument  to  some  practical 
purpose.  Here  we  are,  a  minister  and  people,  jour- 
neying on  through  the  Christian  pilgrimage.  Some 
of  us  ought  to  look  after  the  evidences  of  this  great 
renewal.  Let  me  try  to  exhibit  some  of  them. 
They  come  not  by  observation.  They  are  not  found 
where  often  they  are  looked  for  most.  They  are 
found  in  the  silent  individual  consciousness,  and 
there  they  must  be  sought  for  if  at  all.  I  discrimi- 
nate, then,  change  of  nature  from  change  of  culture 
and  manners,  and  show  what  must  be  the  evidence 
of  the  new  creation  in  Christ  Jesus. 

I.  The  first  and  most  obvious  result  is  an  increase 
of  vital  power.  When  men  become  Christians,  not 
in  form  but  in  spirit,  they  have  more  manhood  and 
womanhood  than  before.     Not  the  quality  only,  but 


138  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

the  quantity  of  being  is  amazingly  increased.  Of 
this  you  have  a  familiar  illustration  in  the  Apostles 
themselves.  While  they  only  knew  Christ  after  the 
flesh,  although  He  walked  among  them,  how  slow  of 
apprehension,  how  timid  and  halting  in  their  disci- 
pleship,  how  always  on  the  lookout  for  themselves, 
and  always  trembling  for  consequences  !  How  to- 
tally changed  after  the  spirit  of  the  risen  Christ 
breathed  through  them,  opening  wide  their  per- 
ceptions, stirring  up  all  their  faculties,  giving  them 
breadth,  and  depth,  and  freedom,  and  tongues  of 
flame !  Henceforth  the  hard  scales  of  Judaism  fall 
away  from  them,  and  they  are  new  men  as  if  their 
very  identity  had  been  changed.  Peter,  who  denied 
his  Lord  at  the  mock-trial,  appears  foremost  at  the 
Pentecostal  scene,  and  interprets  the  new  phenom- 
ena with  an  insight  never  had  before,  and  with  a 
tongue  loosed  from  the  thraldom  of  fear.  Paul  goes 
towards  Damascus  a  persecuting  Jew ;  he  comes 
from  Damascus  the  apostle  of  a  broad  catholicity 
by  which  the  shell  of  Judaism  was  to  be  shattered 
in  pieces.  Then  he  was  full  of  hate  and  revenge  ; 
now  the  heart  brims  over  with  tender  love. 

So  it  has  been  since  the  days  of  Paul,  where 
Christ  has  been  known  not  after  the  flesh  but  after 
the  spirit.  Down  though  the  first  three  centuries, 
young  men,  and  even  boys  and  girls  at  the  age  of 
fifteen,  are  described  as  passing  through  the  ordeals 
of  trial  and  death  with  a  greatness  of  heart  and  a 


THE  NEW  CREATION.  1 39 

quickness  and  wisdom  of  reply,  that  amazed  the 
stoic  philosophers ;  and  yet  these  had  been  lifted 
right  up  from  the  besotted  influence  of  pagan  idol- 
atry. How  and  why  this  is,  we  shall  no  longer 
marvel  when  we  consider  that  when  the  Holy  Spirit 
quickens  the  faculties,  it  gives  them  freedom  and 
enlargement.  It  takes  the  soul  out  of  its  limitations, 
and  sets  it  face  to  face  with  eternal  things,  and 
makes  it  familiar  with  universal  truths  and  gigantic 
conceptions.  It  makes  the  soul  free  of  the  fear  of 
man  and  the  fear  of  consequences,  —  fills  it  with 
great  ideas  and  warms  it  with  celestial  fire. 

Have  you  never  observed  how  insensate  men, 
who  were  slow  of  apprehension  and  slow  of  speech, 
have  had  their  whole  being  replenished  and  en- 
riched, when  Christian  truth  has  fairly  taken  hold  of 
them,  and  a  Christian  experience  has  roused  and  en- 
larged the  faculties  ?  How  quick  and  profound  af- 
terwards are  the  souls'  intuitions,  and  how  tongues 
of  flame  are  given  them  !  How  easily  they  break 
through  the  mere  letter  to  the  spirit  within,  and 
grasp  warmly  the  essential  truths  which  the  under- 
standing had  plodded  and  groped  after  in  vain  ! 
The  quantity  of  being  is  vastly  multiplied,  for  height, 
and  depth,  and  breadth  are  given  to  its  range. 

II.  The  next  evidence  of  this  new  creation  will 
be  found  in  the  quality  of  being,  —  in  the  style  of 
thought  and  imagination.  The  behavior  can  be 
conformed  to  the  best  conventional  rules.     But  there 


I40  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

the  rules  stop.  They  cannot  reach  the  thoughts 
and  imaginations  of  the  mind.  And  yet,  if  these 
are  not  changed,  I  need  not  argue  that  there  is  no 
change  of  nature  within.  Will  you  say  .that  no 
change  is  needed  here,  —  no  matter  what  a  man 
thinks,  if  he  only  keep  it  to  himself  ?  Remember 
that  out  of  the  heart  proceed  evil  thoughts,  adul- 
teries, blasphemies,  and  murders.  And  is  it  enough 
that  their  spirit  and  quality  have  been  so  con- 
cealed as  not  to  disturb  the  vibrations  of  the  natural 
air  ?  Cicero  said  that  if  men  acted  out  their  dreams 
they  would  be  insane.  He  need  not  have  talked 
of  dreams,  but  only  the  thoughts  and  plans  and 
imaginations  of  waking  hours.  What  would  be  the 
sphere  of  many  a  goodly  company  if  all  the  secret 
thoughts  as  they  arise  were  projected  and  laid  on 
the  canvas  as  living  pictures,  and  each  saw  his  own 
mind  out  of  himself  ?  For  under  the  finest  courtesies 
there  may  be  the  foulest  spirit-drawing  ;  thoughts 
running  on  the  line  of  foul  desire ;  on  circumvent- 
ing the  rival  who  stands  in  the  way  ;  wishes  that 
dare  not  come  to  the  tongue,  or  ripen  into  purposes 
of  action.  And  because  all  this  unchanged  realm 
of  the  spirit  lies  close  upon  the  practical,  the  prac- 
tical is  so  often  disturbed.  Human  nature  is  not 
changed  unless  the  realm  of  thought  be  made  clean  ; 
so  that  even  if  our  thoughts  took  shape  around 
us  upon  the  air  as  fast  as  they  come,  they  would  rise 
on  white  and   unspotted  wings.     I  know  very  well 


THE  NEW  CREATION.  I4I 

that  this  change  is  not  instantaneous  in  any  one  ; 
that  long  after  conversion,  the  style  and  cast  of  mind 
have  much  of  the  old  habit  left  ;  that  the  Christian 
must  drive  off  troops  of  evil  suggestions  every  day. 
But  as  fast  as  our  nature  does  change,  our  style 
of  thought  changes  too  ;  and  when  we  are  really 
new  creatures  in  Christ,  we  are  prepared  for  this 
inner  realm  to  be  laid  open  as  it  must  be  in  the 
judgment  time.  Then  no  evil  can  come  into  the 
mind,  for  its  furniture  is  made  pure  and  sweet  like 
the  imagery  of  an  angel's  dream.  The  Christian 
who  really  has  this  great  renewal  going  on  within 
him,  finds  the  need  to  be  less  and  less  for  control 
and  watch  over  all  the  spontaneous  motions  of  his 
nature.  The  man  who  is  not  regenerating  finds  the 
need  to  be  greater  and  greater  of  outward  restraints  ; 
and  age,  if  it  come,  will  not  be  the  snow  crown  of 
heavenly  purity  and  grace,  but  the  breaking  down 
of  guards  and  restraints,  that  what  the  man  is  may 
come  more  freely  into  the  light  of  day. 

III.  Observe  now  a  third  indication.  Where 
there  is  a  change  of  nature,  there  is  a  change  of  tJie 
affections.  We  can  change  our  manners,  our  style 
of  speech  and  action.  But  no  human  power  can 
change  the  heart.  We  can  disguise  it,  cover  over 
its  propensities,  balance  them,  hold  them  in,  but 
their  intrinsic  quality  we  cannot  alter  any  more  than 
we  can  alter  the  constitution  of  things. 

And  perhaps   you  will  say  there   is    no   need  of 


142  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

changing  them.  What  is  purer  than  infant  love  ? 
What  is  sweeter  than  a  child's  affections  ?  I  answer, 
they  are  very  sweet  and  pure,  but  there  is  some- 
thing else  in  the  child  waiting  development.  There 
is  stored  up  in  the  heart  of  every  human  being, 
man,  woman,  or  child,  what  a  living  writer  has  aptly 
termed  "  latent  angers."  They  are  moods  and  dis- 
positions that  come  not  into  our  conscious  being  till 
we  are  placed  amid  the  rivalries  and  temptations  of 
after-life.  Sometimes  they  make  their  appearance 
as  the  spontaneous  evolution  of  a  native  depravity. 
The  boy  has  moods  which  no  one  provoked,  and 
he  sometimes  selects  a  smaller  boy  as  the  object 
of  their  demonstration.  The  same  demonstrations 
from  our  uncleansed  human  nature  we  witness  in 
the  business  and  competitions  of  the  world.  Busi- 
ness goes  wrong  and  the  crosses  and  rivalries  have 
stirred  up  the  latent  angers  which  should  have  ex- 
cited rather  magnanimity  and  quickened  the  sense 
of  honor  and  justice  ;  and  these  dark  moods  bring  a 
chilling  atmosphere  into  the  house  or  glut  their  re- 
venge in  cruelty  to  animals,  —  the  innocent  creatures 
who  cannot  tell  the  long  tale  of  their  oppressions 
and  wrongs.  The  slaver  sees  his  human  property 
turned  into  manhood  ;  he  cannot  destroy  the  gov- 
ernment that  wrought  the  change,  so  he  turns  upon 
the  freedmen  to  persecute  and  destroy  them.  There 
is  nothing  meaner  this  side  the  bottomless  pit  than 
these  latent  angers  in  manifestation.    They  generally 


THE  NEW  CREATIOX.  1 43 

select  the  weak  on  which  to  expend  themselves,  and 
they  give  the  fullest  scope  to  what  Macaulay  de- 
scribes, —  "  the  faculty  of  hating  without  a  provoca- 
tion." It  is  some  devil  of  malice  that  seeks  to  be 
gratified  with  the  least  of  danger,  and  therefore  finds 
its  objects  among  the  hidden  relations  of  human  life. 
It  is  the  unhappiness  of  an  unregenerate  nature,  and 
it  would  make  some  one  else  unhappy  by  way  of  re- 
venge. 

When  the  child  who  inherits  this  evil  grows  up  he 
will  change  his  method  ;  but  if  unchanged  himself, 
he  keeps  his  disposition.  If  he  sees  those  around 
him  more  happy  than  himself,  or  richer  than  him- 
self, he  will  find  some  way  to  project  his  darker 
mood  into  their  sunshine.  And  this  he  will  do  by 
disparaging  the  virtues,  or  studying  to  find  spots  in 
the  characters  of  other  men.  Or,  very  likely,  these 
latent  angers  will  take  another  form,  and  if  a  man 
has  some  private  pique  to  be  gratified,  he  will  try 
to  revenge  it  upon  the  parish  or  upon  the  commu- 
nity. 

Now  the  affections  are  not  changed  till  all  this 
poison  has  been  purged  out  of  them,  and  these 
latent  angers  have  not  only  been  denied,  but  ceased 
to  be  ;  till  the  heart  is  a  spontaneous  fountain  of 
good-will,  and  leaps  up  at  everybody's  joy.  Evil 
moods  are  shadows  projected  into  us  from  the  pit. 
If  we  act  from  them  we  fix  them  there,  and  sit  down 


144  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

in  their  dismal  shade.  Resist  them  and  look  up, 
and  they  retire  before  the  Divine  presence  till  we 
emerge  out  of  the  shadows,  and  the  Christ  diffuses 
sweetness  through  all  the  fountains  of  the  heart ; 
and  then  how  easy  it  is,  as  Goethe  says,  "  to  love 
God  and  every  little  child,"  —  and  all  the  grades  be- 
tween ! 

IV.  Let  me  describe  a  fourth  indication  of  change 
of  nature.  You  know  that  when  the  sun  has  just 
risen,  and  for  a  good  while  into  the  forenoon,  there 
are  long  shadows  flung  towards  the  west  and  to- 
wards the  north,  so  that  a  great  many  spots  are  not 
warmed  and  blessed  with  his  beams.  The  western 
side  and  the  northern  side  of  things  remain  cold, 
and  the  plants  and  pansies  will  not  start  and  grow 
there  ;  and  spring  is  much  longer  in  coming  and 
getting  fairly  installed  in  these  shadowy  places. 
But  when  the  sun  gets  up  to  high  noon,  or  when 
summer  gets  to  its  solstice,  all  the  little  corners 
and  northern  coverts  are  reached  and  quickened ; 
and  Nature  shoots  her  shuttles  through  all  these  by- 
places,  and  weaves  over  them  her  carpet  of  green. 
Just  so  it  is  with  us  in  the  regenerate  life.  When 
we  begin  it,  and  Christ  only  slants  his  beams  over 
us,  there  are  some  provinces  of  duty  which  we 
bravely  fill,  while  others  are  left  in  the  shadows. 
Some  of  life's  relations  are  pervaded  with  the  love 
of  God  ;    others  have  not  been  thrilled  with  it  at  all. 


THE  NEW  CREATION:  1 45 

I  may  be  a  good  neighbor,  but  not  faithful  to 
Christ's  Church  and  cause.  Many  persons  do  well 
enough  in  their  town  and  neighborhood,  who  never 
do  aught  for  the  cause  of  Christianity,  which  alone 
makes  a  neighborhood  fit  to  live  in.  I  may  be 
zealous  for  religion,  but  not  for  humanity,  or  I  may 
be  sunny  and  sweet  as  summer  to  personal  friends, 
but  to  nobody  else.  I  may  be  a  good  Christian 
sometimes,  and  then  relapse  into  heathenism,  and 
so  my  Christian  life  be  fragmentary  and  incomplete. 
Only  when  our  sun  of  righteousness  rises  toward 
high  noon,  does  every  province  of  life  and.  duty  be- 
come warm  with  it,  and  the  summer  green  pervades 
the  by-places,  where  the  frosts  and  the  shadows  had 
kept  before.  And  then  we  know  the  meaning  of  the 
words  :  "  He  that  is  faithful  in  the  least  is  faithful 
also  in  much,  and  he  that  is  unjust  in  the  least  is 
unjust  also  in  much." 

I  have  named  four  indications  of  the  new  creation, 
—  new  vital  power ;  new  style  of  spontaneous 
thought  ;  new  affections  purged  of  latent  angers, 
and  all  the  provinces  of  duty  pervaded  and  warmed 
by  the  noontide.  Culture  cannot  do  this.  Education 
cannot  do  it.  A  one-sided  Christianity,  with  the 
moving  power  of  the  Gospel  left  out,  cannot  do  it. 
Christianity,  full-orbed  and  unobscured  always  has 
done  this,  and  always  can.  If  it  is  not  doing  it  for 
us,  it  is  because  we  have  not  drawn  upon  its  Al- 
io 


146  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

mighty  resources.  But  no  truth  regenerates  and 
saves  till  it  is  self-applied  ;  when  it  is  self-applied 
the  change  begins  which  is  not  complete  till  "  old 
things  are  passed  away  and  all  thing*,  are  become 
new." 


THE    NEW   MORNING. 

Long  had  the  tears  of  penitence 

From  sleepless  eyes  been  falling, 
Long  had  I  heard  the  still  small  voice 

That  through    the  soul  kept  calling ; 
One  night  I  watched  the  shapeless  clouds 

That  o'er  my  mind  were  rolling, 
Till  the  clock's  slow  and  solemn  tongue 

The  hour  of  twelve  was  tolling. 

Then  o'er  the  loved  disciples'  page 

Was  I  my  vigils  keeping  ; 
I  read  and  prayed,  and  read  again, 

While  all  the  rest  were  sleeping  ; 
And  as  I  prayed  there  came  a  fire, 

Within  me  gently  glowing,  — 
A  calm  as  when  the  drooping  gales 

At  hush  of  eve  stop  blowing. 

The  clouds  that  o'er  my  spirit  hung 

Then  gave  a  bright  forewarning  ; 
They  changed  to  white  and  purpling  flakes 

As  at  the  break  of  morning. 
And  then  looked  through  the  countenance, 

Clothed  in  its  sun-bright  splendor, 
Of  Him  who  o'er  his  Church  of  old 

Kept  holy  watch  and  tender, 


I48  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

His  robe  was  white  as  flakes  of  snow 

When  through  the  air  descending  — 
I  saw  the  clouds  before  him  melt, 

And  rainbows  o'er  Him  bending  ; 
And  then  a  voice  —  no,  not  a  voice  — 

An  inward  calm  revealing, 
Came  softly  as  the  steps  of  Dawn 

O'er  tranquil  waters  stealing. 

And  ever  since,  that  countenance 

Is  on  my  pathway  shining, — 
A  Sun  from  out  a  higher  sky 

Whose  Light  knows  no  declining: 
All  day  it  falls  upon  my  road 

And  keeps  my  feet  from  straying, 
And  when  at  night  I  lay  me  down, 

I  fall   asleep  while  praying. 


X. 

CONCERNING  DEATH. 

(a  sermon  addressed  to  children.) 

Amos  "\ .  8.     Seek  Him  who  turneth  the  shadow  of  death  into 
the  morning. 

CHILDREN  sometimes  have  no  interest  in  the 
sermon  because  they  cannot  understand  it. 
There  are  indeed  subjects  of  great  importance  which 
cannot  very  well  be  brought  home  to  these  youngest 
hearers.  But  there  are  others  which  they  can  un- 
derstand, and  about  which  their  young  hearts  beat 
with  hopes  and  fears  and  anxieties.  One  of  these 
subjects  is  death,  for  there  are  more  persons  who  die 
in  infancy  and  childhood  than  at  any  other  age.  I 
know  that  your  hearts  are  full  of  that  subject  this 
morning,  and  that  I  shall  be  sure  of  your  attention  if 
I  adopt  a  simple  style  of  speech  and  illustration. 
And  I  hope  none  the  less  to  interest  all  classes  and 
ages,  for  there  are  truths  which  lose  nothing  in  being 
clothed  in  the  simplest  language,  and  in  learning 
which  we  all  of  us  are  children  before  God. 

It  is  a  great  misfortune,  especially  in  childhood,  to 
get  a  wrong  impression  about  death  ;  for  when  that 


150  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

is  so,  your  young  day  becomes  haunted  with  vague 
and  needless  terrors,  and  you  do  not  prepare  for 
death  or  for  life  with  intelligence  and  cheerfulness. 
I  remember  my  own  experience,  and  •  how  the 
thought  of  death  rested  upon  my  childhood  like  a 
dark  and  heavy  cloud  that  chilled  its  innocent  joys. 
It  is  from  a  desire  of  saving  you  in  part  at  least  from 
a  similar  experience,  that  I  address  you  upon  this 
subject.  And  in  order  to  understand  it  we  will  try, 
in  the  first  place,  to  remove  out  of  our  way  some 
false  notions  about  it.  So  the  sermon  will  have  two 
parts. 

First,  we  will  clear  away  some  mistakes  about 
death  ;  and  then  show  what  it  really  is. 

I.  First,  there  is  the  false  idea  which  we  must 
leave  behind,  that  death  is  a  dark  or  a  lonely  passage 
from  this  to  another  world.  People  get  this  idea 
from  figurative  language  found  in  hymns,  in  the 
Bible,  and  in  sermons,  and  which  is  understood  too 
literally.  You  read  of  "  death's  cold  flood,"  of  "  the 
dark  river,"  and  of  "  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death."  Of  course  it  cannot  be  a  valley  and  a  river 
both.  Figures  of  speech  are  addressed  to  the  feel- 
ings and  the  imagination.  They  are  images  to  repre- 
sent realities,  not  the  realities  themselves.  But  the 
figure  in  this  case  has  often  been  taken  for  the  fact 
itself,  not  only  by  children  but  by  older  persons. 
But  when  so  taken  it  gives  you  a  totally  wrong  im- 
pression ;  for  in  dying  you  will   neither   go  over  a 


CONCERNING   DEATH.  151 

river,  or  through  a  valley,  nor  go  anywhere,  as  we 
shall  see  when  we  come  to  unfold  the  subject. 

Let  us  clear  away  another  delusion.  You  would 
sometimes  infer  from  what  you  read  in  books  or 
hear  in  sermons,  that  death  will  bring  you  into  the 
awful  presence  of  God,  such  as  will  overwhelm  or 
terrify.  You  hear  of  "the  bar  of  God,"  and  "the 
judgment-seat,"  as  if  death  were  a  summons  to  some 
dread  tribunal  with  a  stern  Almighty  Judge  sitting 
upon  it.  Now  we  know  very  well,  both  from  the 
Bible  and  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  that  this  can- 
not be  in  any  literal  sense  of  the  word.  The  only 
way  to  see  God  is  by  becoming  pure  and  good,  and 
if  you  are  not  pure  and  good  you  will  no  more  see 
God  in  another  world  than  you  will  in  this.  We 
approach  God  by  becoming  more  like  Him.  He  is 
near  to  us  in  Christ  when  we  are  Christ-like.  We 
become  conscious  of  his  presence  through  Christian 
progress  and  regeneration.  Hence  we  read,  "  Blessed 
are  the  pure  in  heart  for  they  shall  see  God." 
Merely  dying  will  not  cause  us  to  see  God  any  more 
than  a  change  of  garments  will  do  it,  unless  after 
death  we  shall  advance  more  rapidly  in  the  heavenly 
life.  And  then  to  see  God  will  be  our  highest  bliss. 
It  will  make  us  glad  and  joyous  like  seeing  the  sun 
and  rejoicing  in  his  beams.  The  punishment  of  the 
wicked  is  that  they  cannot  see  God,  but  are  away 
from  Him.  It  is  his  absence  that  we  have  most  to 
dread.     To  be  without  God  in  this  world,  or  in  any 


152  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

other,  is  the  supreme  desolation.  It  is  being  brought 
near  Him  that  we  have  most  to  desire,  as  is  expressed 
in  the  hymn  you  sing  sometimes,  — 

"Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee  —  nearer  to  thee." 

Let  us  clear  away  another  delusion.  We  get  an 
impression  about  death  such  as  the  heathen  had,  that 
it  destroys  the  most  real  and  substantial  part  of  us 
and  turns  us  into  ghosts.  Hence  the  belief  in  spec- 
tres ;  and  hence  the  notion  that  ghosts  cannot  be 
completely  happy  till  they  come  back  into  the  same 
body  again,  —  a  notion  which  the  Jews  brought  from 
Babylon,  and  hence  it  comes  into  our  Christian  litera- 
ture. So  you  read  on  tombstones  sometimes,  "  This 
dust  shall  rise  again."  I  should  be  sorry  to  think  so  ; 
sorry  to  believe  that  when  the  body  falls  away  from 
us  we  are  less  real  and  substantial  beings,  and  not 
rather  more  so  ;  sorry  to  think  that  this  world  of  dull 
sense  and  matter,  beautiful  as  it  is,  is  the  best  world 
that  God  has  made  ;  sorry  to  think  that  these  bodies 
of  flesh  and  blood  are  the  best  bodies  which  God 
creates.  Let  us  dismiss,  then,  this  notion  of  ghostly 
existence  after  death,  and  think  of  it  as  the  very 
fullness  of  warm  and  positive  being,  throbbing  and 
blooming  with  a  life  which  the  pulses  of  these  mor- 
tal bodies  are  too  languid  to  measure.  Hence,  in  all 
the  Scripture  scenes  which  give  us  gleams  of  the 
immortal  life,  they  picture  it  to  us  not  as  more  dim 
and  shadowy,  but  as  more  bright  and  real,  —  as  in 
the  transfiguration  scene  where  Moses  and  Elijah 
appeared  in  glory. 


CONCERNING  DEATH.  153 

Sleep  is  another  false  image  under  which  death  is 
described  to  us.  This,  too,  was  borrowed  from  the 
heathen  ;  but  how  largely  has  it  entered  into  Christian 
literature  and  affected  our  modes  of  thinking  and 
speaking.  People  call  it  sleep  because  it  appears  so 
to  the  senses,  forgetting  that  sometimes  these  ap- 
pearances are  the  very  opposite  of  reality.  "  Asleep 
in  Jesus,"  I  have  read  as  the  epitaph  of  a  good  man, 
when  the  sleepiest  of  all  people  are  those  who  fall 
away  from  Jesus,  and  those  who  are  really  in  Him 
are  kept  widest  awake. 

Clearing  off  this  false  imagery,  we  are  prepared  for 
the  positive  and  glorious  truth  to  which  wre  are  now 
coming.  We  have  seen  what  death  is  not  and  what 
it  will  not  do.  Let  us  now  see  what  it  is  and  what 
it  will  do. 

Before  I  come  to  show  what  it  is,  perhaps  I  oughi 
to  answer  a  question  which  you  will  naturally  ask 
me.  How  do  I  know  anything  about  it  ?  How  can 
any  one  know  about  it  who  has  never  died  ?  Let 
me  answer  by  saying,  I  suppose  we  know  as  much 
about  it  as  we  ever  shall  or  ever  can.  We  shall  not 
know  any  more  abo^t  dying  by  going  through  the 
process  of  death,  for  the  simple  reason  that  in  the 
process  itself  it  annihilates  all  sensation.  A  great 
many  persons  have  experienced  everything  up  to  the 
point  where  sensation  ceases,  and  then  come  back  to 
life  and  told  us  their  whole  experience.  More  than 
this,  the  Bible  tells  us  of  some  who  passed  beyond 


154  SEXMONS  AND  SONGS. 

that  point  and  opened  their  eyes  upon  the  after 
scene  and  then  came  back  and  told  us  all  about  it. 
Christ  was  an  instance  of  this  kind.  St.  John  was 
another —  similar,  though  not  the  same.  After  death 
we  shall  know  more  of  what  is  beyond  ;  we  shall  not 
know  more  of  the  fact  itself  for  the  simple  reason 
that  we  shall  not  be  conscious  of  it.  We  learn  what 
death  is  from  the  Divine  revelations  and  from  the 
nature  of  the  case. 

II.  Death  is  waking  up  out  of  sleep.  It  is  not 
sleep  itself,  but  just  the  opposite,  waking  up  out  of 
sleep.  Those  few  words  probably  describe  it  as  per- 
fectly as  any  words  can.  I  suppose,  my  young  hearers, 
you  experience  something  exactly  analogous  to  death 
every  morning.  During  the  night  your  senses  are 
locked  fast  in  sleep.  Still  you  are  not  unconscious. 
You  see  things  in  your  dreams,  but  you  see  them 
dimly.  You  work  and  play,  and  wander  over  fields, 
and  go  to  see  friends  and  friends  come  to  see  you  ; 
all  the  while  shut  in  to  that  dream-land  which  you 
explore  at  will.  In  that  dream-world  you  have  your 
griefs  and  pleasures,  trials  and  joys.  But  there  is  an- 
other world  all  around  you  which  for  the  time  you  do 
not  see.  Perhaps  the  morning  sun  rises  and  shines 
through  the  windows  and  finds  you  sleeping  still,  liv- 
ing in  that  world  of  dreams  and  shadows.  There  is 
a  bright  sky  over  you,  and  the  green  earth  all  around 
you,  and  the  morning  air  is  broken  into  whirls  and 
eddies  of  song  from  a  thousand  birds,  but  you  see 


CONCERNING  DEATH.  155 

and  hear  nothing  of  all  this,  for  sleep  has  locked  you 
fast  in  that  land  of  dreams.  Good  dreams  they  may 
be,  giving  you  the  images  and  impressions  of  the 
waking  world  ;  but  they  are  not  that  waking  world 
itself,  only  its  image  and  representation.  But  by 
and  by  your  senses  unclose,  the  dream-world  all 
vanishes,  and  lo  !  this  other  world  of  sky  and  earth, 
and  woods  and  waters,  is  all  given  to  your  sight. 
How  have  you  passed  from  that  world  of  shad- 
ows into  this  real  world  of  beauty  and  song  ?  By 
going  away  somewhere  ?  No,  but  by  waking  up. 
You  open  your  eyes  and  pass  from  one  world  into  an- 
other —  not  by  travelling,  but  simply  by  the  exercise 
of  another  set  of  faculties  which  have  waked  into 
consciousness.  But  please  to  understand  that  you 
have  not  yet  waked  into  the  highest  world.  There 
is  a  brighter  one  yet,  compared  with  which  all  this 
outward  scene  is  a  land  of  dreams  and  shadows. 
What  you  saw  in  your  sleep  compared  with  what  you 
saw  when  you  awoke,  is  as  this  world  we  now  look 
upon  compared  with  the  one  we  shall  see  when  death 
wakes  us  to  a  sight  of  its  realities.  We  are  in  it 
now,  though  we  sleep  and  dream  and  therefore  do  not 
see  it.  Hence  we  find  that  good  books  call  this  a 
dream,  and  this  world  a  fleeting  show.  As  in  those 
lines,  — 

"  This  life  is  but  a  fleeting  show. 
For  man's  illusion  given." 

Or,  as  the  Psalmist  has  it,  "  Every  man  walketh  in  a 


I56  SERMOArS  AND  SONGS. 

vain  show,"  or,  as  some  render,  "  among  empty  shad- 
ows." They  only  mean  that  this  outward  life,  with 
all  its  shows,  is  unreal  and  dim  compared  with  the 
one  which  we  wake  into  at  the  touch  of  death.  u  The 
fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away,"  says  an  Apostle. 
We  shut  our  eyes  on  it  at  death  and  wake  up  in  an- 
other, just  as  we  wake  from  our  night  dreams  into 
the  midst  of  bright  realities  every  morning.  So 
friends,  when  they  die,  do  not  travel  off  into  space  to 
find  the  spiritual  world.  They  have  a  sense  within 
which  simply  wakes  up  to  what  before  was  all  around 
and  within  them,  though  invisible.  You  have  souls 
within  you.  These  souls  are  the  immortal  and  sub- 
stantial part  of  you,  though,  alas  !  they  are  now  com- 
paratively asleep,  and  at  best  only  dream  and  imagine 
what  shall  be  hereafter.  The  soul  is  the  real  man, 
having  its  own  class  of  faculties,  though  closed  and 
locked  in  a  mortal  body.  Death  is  simply  the  wak- 
ing up  of  those  faculties  to  the  bright  and  embracing 
world  of  immortality. 

And  I  do  not  know  that  death  will  be  our  last 
waking.  I  do  not  know  but  we  may  have  deeper 
senses  yet,  which  death  now  may  not  touch  and 
open.  Perhaps  we  have  ranges  of  faculties,  one 
within  another,  each  with  its  own  world  and  modes 
of  being,  so  that  we  may  keep  waking  up,  stage  af- 
ter stage,  to  brighter  realms,  for  ever  and  ever  away 
towards  God,  the  central  life  and  glory  of  all.  I 
will  not  dogmatize  ;  but  who  shall  say  that  we  may 


CONCERNING  DEATH.  157 

not  to  all  eternity,  at  some  of  its  stages,  die  to  a 
more  outward  life  and  wake  up  to  a  more  inward 
and  real  one  ?  that  after  we  have  lived  out  the  life 
of  one  world  faithfully,  a  new  one  will  open  more 
brightly  and  objectively,  where  there  is  a  higher 
order  of  existence,  and  God  reveals  Himself  in 
diviner  splendor  —  all  coming  from  the  successive 
waking  up  into  intenser  life  of  faculties  that  sleep 
already  within  us  ?  Be  that  as  it  may,  let  us  lay 
it  up  as  a  first  truth,  Death  is  not  a  sleep,  but  a 
waking.  This  is  our  sleep  ;  our  dull  life  in  these 
sluggish  bodies.  Death  wakes  us  out  of  this,  and 
then  it  is  morning. 

In  all  that  I  have  now  said,  I  have  considered 
myself  as  describing  death  as  it  is  to  good  men 
and  innocent  children.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
it  will  wake  every  one  immediately  into  a  higher 
and  brighter  scene.  But  it  will  wake  each  one  to 
see  just  the  world  he  is  already  in  and  belongs  to. 
It  is  a  great  mistake  to  think  that  God  will  raise 
men  to  heaven  or  send  them  to  dismal  abodes, 
merely  because  they  die.  Can  we  not  grasp  this 
great  truth,  that  men  go  to  a  good  world  or  a  bad 
one  before  they  die,  and  that  death  only  touches 
them  to  wake  them  up,  and  show  them  where  they 
are  ?  Attend  one  moment  and  we  can  make  this 
plain. 

Here  is  a  man  who  is  sleeping  in  a  pleasant  gar- 
den, embowered  in   fragrant   shades    and   blooming 


158  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

roses.  Friends  may  be  walking  all  around  him,  and 
watching  his  slumber,  and  birds  of  paradise  may 
fling  golden  shadows  over  him  from  their  wings. 
But  he  does  not  see  all  this.  He  is  locked  in  his 
own  world  and  only  dreaming  of  it.  He  is  asleep. 
By  and  by  some  friend  comes  and  touches  him, 
and  says,  "  Sleep  no  longer  !  wake  to  what  is  about 
you !  "  He  does  wake,  and  by  the  very  act  of  wak- 
ing becomes  cognizant  of  all  those  pleasant  things. 
He  has  not  gone  away  somewhere  to  find  them. 
He  was  among  them  before,  and  only  waked  up  to 
see  them.  So  it  is  with  good  men  and  good  chil- 
dren. They  are  in  heaven  before  they  die  in  heart 
and  spirit ;  with  God  and  his  Christ  and  his  an- 
.  gels,  for  these  draw  around  the  good  man,  —  en- 
camp round  about  him,  as  the  Psalmist  says,  and 
death  only  wakes  him,  that  he  may  find  himself 
among  the  sweet  societies.  Death  comes  to  such  as 
an  angel  friend  —  as  if  he  would  say  as  he  touches 
them,  "  Sleep  no  more  !  wake  up  from  those  earth 
dreams  to  these  blessed  realities." 

But  again,  there  is  a  man  asleep  amid  scenery 
very  different  from  this  ;  in  some  den  of  wretched- 
ness, among  evil  companions,  and  perhaps  angry 
words  and  blasphemies  grate  on  his  sleeping  ear. 
He,  too,  is  shut  in  to  his  dream-world. 

Troubled  dreams  they  are  which  now  disturb  him, 
and  in  his  sleep  he  wanders  amid  no  green  and 
grateful    scenery.       Where   will    he    be    when    he 


CONCERNING  DEATH.  I  59 

awakes  ?  Just  where  he  had  placed  himself.  Amid 
evil  companions,  and  in  wretched  abodes.  He  has 
waked  up  amid  just  the  society  which  he  covets 
and  loves,  and  to  just  such  pleasures  as  he  is  fitted 
to  enjoy.  He  has  not  travelled  away  to  find  them. 
He  was  there  before.  Even  so  let  us  remember 
that  bad  men;  before  they  die,  have  withdrawn  from 
the  communion  of  God  and  heaven  and  angels. 
They  have  travelled  away  from  these  already,  and 
death  only  wakes  them  up  to  where  they  are  —  the 
evil  companionship  which  they  love,  and  the  dismal 
surroundings  which  it  creates.  Bear  away,  then, 
this  momentous  truth,  that  good  deeds  and  pure  af- 
fections make  heaven  ;  yea,  that  by  these  you  travel 
into  it,  and  death  merely  opens  your  eyes  to  its 
scenery ;  that  evil  dispositions  and  evil  passions 
make  hell  ;  yea,  that  by  these  you  travel  into  it  now, 
and  death  only  opens  your  eyes  to  its  scenery. 

I  trust  I  have  shown  you  plain  enough,  that  death 
merely  is  not  to  be  feared,  but  that  the  only  mo- 
mentous question  is,  where  death  will  find  you.  We 
dismiss  the  notion  that  after  death  we  are  to  travel 
off  somewhere  through  dreary  spaces,  and  stop 
somewhere  in  unknown  worlds.  Our  spiritual  trav- 
elling is  done  before  death.  It  is  change  of  state, 
not  change  of  place.  What  a  blessed  thought !  — 
that  we  are  not  to  cross  streams  and  dark  valleys 
to  find  the  happy  abodes  and  peaceful  homes,  but 
that  we  may  wake  to  higher  life  and  find  ourselves 


160  SERMONS  A. YD  SOA'GS. 

among  the  shining  ones,  just  as  we  wake  out  of 
a  dream  in  the  morning  and  find  ourselves  in  our 
homes  and  families.  But  in  order  to  do  this,  we 
must  be  of  the  same  temper,  spirit,  and  purpose. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  going  to  heaven  ;  but  you 
may  become  heavenly-minded,  and  then  death  will 
wake  you  out  of  the  more  sluggish  existence  of 
earth,  to  the  more  visible  realities  of  a  heavenly 
world. 

And  how,  you  will  ask,  are  we  to  become  heav- 
enly-minded ?  I  have  already  implied  how  this 
may  be.  But  to  make  it  very  plain,  I  present  it  in 
two  points  which  you  can  remember  and  carry  away. 

First,  we  become  heavenly-minded  by  living  to 
make  others  happy.  That  includes  almost  the 
whole.  The  employments  of  heaven,  as  we  read, 
consist  in  making  others  happy.  That  is  what  is 
meant  by  the  word  angel.  It  is  a  messenger,  and  a 
messenger  of  good,  sent  to  bestow  blessings.  When 
we  live  to  bless  others  we  become  like  them,  mes- 
sengers of  good.  If  the  employments  of  earth  only 
had  this  end  in  view,  heaven  would  be  brought 
down  into  all  its  affairs.  If  it  is  the  aim  and  work 
of  your  life  to  be  a  blessing  to  others,  you  are  liv- 
ing already  the  heavenly  life,  and  you  will  be  only 
more  openly  and  visibly  in  heaven  when  death  wakes 
you  to  its  scenery  and  surroundings. 

But  we  cannot  make  others  happy  except  we  are 
good  ourselves.     And  we  cannot  be  good  ourselves 


CONCERNING  DEATH.  161 

except  as  God  makes  us  so  by  our  communings 
with  Him,  as  He  is  revealed  in  his  Christ,  and  thence 
seeks  to  form  his  own  image  both  in  men  and  in 
little  children.  I  present  in  these  two  points  the 
pith  and  essence  of  a  great  many  sermons  and  even 
whole  libraries.  Live  to  make  others  happy  and 
heaven  is  already  entered  ;  and  in  order  to  this, 
"  Seek  Him  who  turneth  the  shadow  of  death  into 
the  morning." 

The  fact  which  I  stated  at  the  beginning  of  my 
sermon,  is  a  very  interesting  one :  that  nearly  half  of 
those  who  die  are  children.  In  one  view  this  de- 
presses and  saddens  us,  for  it  is  so  much  of  God's 
beautiful  flock  taken  from  the  homes  and  pleasant 
haunts  of  earth.  But  when  we  remember  that  all 
this  young  life  is  flowing  into  the  heavens  and  helps 
to  keep  them  fresh  and  strong,  the  idea  is  forced 
upon  us  that  children  are  needed  there  as  well  as 
here,  and  that  the  homes  of  heaven,  like  those  of 
earth,  are  not  full  without  them.  We  should  not 
murmur,  then,  when  called  upon  to  "  halve  the  lot " 
with  those  above  us. 

"To  us,  these  graves;  to  them,  the  rows 
The  mystic  palm-trees  spring  in. 
To  us,  the  silence  in  the  house  ; 
To  them,  the  choral  singing." 


II 


LITTLE  WILLIE  WAKING  UP. 

Some  have  thought  that  in  the  dawning, 

In  our  being's  freshest  glow, 
God  is  nearer  little  children 

Than  their  parents  ever  know, 
And  that  if  you  listen  sharply, 

Better  things  than  you  can  teach, 
And  a  sort  of  mystic  wisdom 

Trickles  through  their  careless  speech. 

How  it  is,  I  cannot  answer, 

But  I  knew  a  little  child 
Who  among  the  thyme  and  clover 

And  the  bees  was  running  wild  ; 
And  he  came  one  summer  evening, 

With  his  ringlets  o'er  his  eyes, 
And  his  hat  was  torn  in  pieces 

Chasing  bees  and  butterflies. 

"  Now  1  '11  go  to  bed,  dear  mother, 

For  I  'm  very  tired  of  play  ! " 
And  he  said  his  "  Now  I  lay  me  " 

In  a  kind  of  careless  way  ; 
And  he  drank  the  cooling  water 

From  his  little  silver  cup, 
And  said  gayly,  "  When  it 's  morning, 

May  the  angels  take  me  up !  " 

Down  he  sank  with   roguish  laughter 
In  his  little  trundle  bed, 


164  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

And  the  kindly  god  of  slumber 
Showered  poppies  o'er  his  head. 

"  What  could  mean  his  speaking  strangely  ? 
Asked  his  musing  mother  then, 

"  Oh  't  was  nothing  but  his  prattle,  — 
What  could  he  of  angels  ken  ? 

"  There  he  lies,  how  sweet  and  placid  ! 
And  his  breathing  comes  and  goes 
Like  a  zephyr  moving  softly, 

And  his  cheek  is  like  a  rose  ; 
But  his  mother  leaned  to  listen 
If  his  breathing  could  be  heard  ; 
"  Oh,"  she  murmured,  "  if  the  angels 
Took  my  darling  at  his  word  ! " 

Night  within  its  folding  mantle 

Has  the  sleepers  both  beguiled, 
And  within  its  soft  embracings 

Rest  the  mother  and  the  child  ; 
Up  she  starteth  from  her  dreaming, 

For  a  sound  has  struck  her  ear, 
And  it  comes  from  little  Willie 

Lying  on  his  trundle   near. 

Up  she  springeth,  for  it  striketh 

On  her  troubled  ear  again, 
And  his  breath  in  louder  fetches 

Travels  from  his  lungs  in  pain ; 
And  his  eyes  are  fixing  upward 

On  some  face  beyond  the  room, 
And  the  blackness  of  the  spoiler, 

From  his  cheek  has  chased  the  bloom. 


LITTLE    WILLIE  WAKING    UP.  l6$ 

Never  more  his  "  Now  I  lay  me  ;' 

Will  be  said  from  mother's  knee  ; 
Never  more  among  the  clover 

Will  he  chase  the  humble-bee  ; 
Through  the  night  she  watched  her  darling, 

Now  despairing,  now  in  hope, 
And  about  the  break  of  morning 

Did  the  angels  take  him  up. 


XL 

THE  UNIVERSAL  REDEMPTION. 

Romans  viii.  19-21.  The  earnest  expectation  of  the  creature 
waitethfor  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God.  For  the 
creature  was  made  subject  to  vanity,  not  willingly,  but  by 
reason  of  Him  who  hath  subjected  the  same  in  hope  ;  be- 
cause the  creature  itself  also  shall  be  delivered  from  the 
bondage  of  corruption,  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  chil- 
dren of  God. 

I  DO  not  know  of  anything  out  of  the  sayings  of 
Jesus  that  describes  with  such  power  and  unction 
the  renewing  energy  of  the  Gospel,  as  this  eighth 
chapter  to  the  Romans.  We  shall  not  get  the  full 
scope  of  Paul's  doctrine,  however,  without  a  little 
verbal  explanation  and  criticism.  This  word  "  creat- 
ure "  does  not  mean  man  exclusively  ;  at  least  I  can 
give  it  no  such  narrow  interpretation.  It  includes 
all  animal  existence  as  well  ;  all  the  dumb  natures 
below  man  who  are  subject  to  him  as  the  lord  of  the 
earth,  "  having  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea  and 
over  the  fowl  of  the- air  and  over  every  living  thing 
that  moveth  upon  the  earth."  And  the  meaning  of 
the  word  extends  yet  farther,  and  includes  insensate 
and  inanimate  things  ;  for  the  writer  says  by  a  bold 


1 68  SERMONS  AND  SOA'GS. 

personification,  *  the  whole  creation "  groaneth  and 
travaileth  in  pain  and  yearns  for  its  deliverance. 
When  we  remember  Paul's  Rabbinical  learning  and 
style  of  conception,  we  cannot  doubt  that  this  is  his 
thought ;  that  he  sees  inanimate  nature  as  it  were  in 
sympathy  with  man,  as  if  the  taint  of  his  corruption 
had  run  down  into  the  lowest  things  and  was  also  to 
be  purged  away  from  them,  so  that  in  the  times  of 
the  Messiah  there  shall  be  a  new  earth  for  the  abode 
of  righteousness.  He  hears  the  undertones  of  all 
nature  moaning  for  her  deliverance  from  the  domin- 
ion of  sin.  Man  and  animal  and  inanimate  nature  I 
understand  to  be  all  included  under  the  phrase,  "  the 
whole  creation"  which  groaneth  and  travaileth  in 
pain. 

They  are  all  made  subject  to  "  vanity,"  says  the 
Apostle,  not  by  their  own  will  but  through  the  will  of 
the  Creator.  But  this  word  "  vanity,"  is  very  inade- 
quate to  give  his  idea.  He  describes  the  same  in 
the  verse  following  as  "  the  bondage  of  corruption." 
He  means  plainly  evil  in  general  with  all  its  attend- 
ant sufferings,  which,  beginning  in  the  nature  of  man, 
involves  all  natures  below  him  so  that  when  man 
shall  be  delivered  from  it,  the  whole  creation  will  also 
rejoice  in  the  deliverance  and  enjoy  "  the  glorious 
liberty  of  the  children  of  God." 

All  this  may  seem  visionary.  Doubtless  it  is  vis- 
ionary ;  for  all  prophecy  comes  from  vision,  albeit 
it  is  vision  which  one  day  is  to  become  reality.     Let 


THE   UXIVERSAL  REDEMPTION.  1 69 

us  see  then  in  what  way  these  splendid  ideals  which 
filled  the  Apostles  field  of  view  are  to  become  reali- 
ties through  the  power  of  the  Christian  Gospel.  The 
Christian  redemption  takes  its  course  downward, 
reaching  man  first  and  then  all  natures  below  him. 
Let  us  follow  its  course  in  this  direction. 

L  "  We  who  have  the  first-fruits  of  the  Spirit 
wait  for  the  adoption,  namely,  "  the  redemption  of 
our  body."  The  redemption  of  our  body  from  what  ? 
Why  from  these  lusts  and  passions  which  make  it  the 
servant  of  sin  and  draw  it  down  and  away  from  the 
service  of  the  soul.  Our  body  does  not  mean  here 
merely  our  material  coverings  but  the  whole  outward 
man  which  bodies  forth  the  spiritual  nature  within, 
and  which  is  the  receptacle  of  all  our  inherited  de- 
pravities. This  is  the  bondage  of  corruption  which 
holds  the  soul  in  thraldom,  and  out  of  which  the  soul 
sighs  for  deliverance.  Paul  terms  it  in  another  con- 
nection "  the  body  of  death,"  where  he  describes 
man  as  it  were  split  in  two  and  striving  in  opposite 
directions  ;  as  if  the  individual  in  his  double  con- 
sciousness were  resolved  into  two  men,  one  delight- 
ing supremely  in  the  law  of  God,  the  other  urging 
into  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  "  our 
members."  In  our  modern  phraseology  we  call  these 
two  the  higher  and  the  lower  nature,  —  the  former 
receptive  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  answering  to  its 
call,  the  other  the  abode  of  all  our  stormful  and 
unclean  passions  and  responding  to  the  sorceries  of 


170  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

the  tempter.  This  outward  or  natural  man,  called 
the  body  of  sin,  is  not  made  up  of  flesh  and  blood 
merely  ;  for  flesh  and  blood  may  drop  away  alto- 
gether and  still  the  spiritual  body  be  the  abode  of  de- 
praved passions  and  appetites.  These  material  cov- 
erings which  we  wear  obey  the  law  of  the  immortal 
man  within  them  ;  let  that  be  purged  of  evil  and  it 
will  transform  the  whole  outward  nature  and  make 
our  material  clothings  fit  to  us  as  our  robe  of  right- 
eousness. In  its  changes  and  transformations  it 
shall  become  obsequious  to  the  soul  that  "  delights 
in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward  man."  Matter  is 
neither  good  nor  evil  except  as  magnetized  by  the 
spirit  within ;  and  though  the  natural  man  may  not 
become  free  at  once  from  all  taint  of  corruption  he- 
reditary or  acquired,  perhaps  never  in  this  life,  yet 
the  full  power  of  the  Christian  Gospel  shall  bring 
the  whole  gang  of  passions  and  appetites  into  com- 
plete quiescence,  so  that  the  motions  of  the  regene- 
rate heart,  love,  mercy,  compassion,  charity,  and  good- 
will shall  have  their  forthgoing  without  hindrance, 
and  then  the  redemption  of  our  body  is  complete. 

Among  all  the  vices  gendered  in  this  "body  of 
sin,"  cruelty,  perhaps,  is  the  worst  and  the  most  dev- 
ilish. It  would  be  unjust  to  the  animal  to  say  with- 
out qualification  that  cruelty  makes  men  brutal,  for 
there  are  brutes  that  are  not  cruel,  but  gentle  and 
harmless,  and  which  have  a  sort  of  sympathy  with 
the   sufferings    of  others.     Cruelty  allies   men  with 


THE    UNIVERSAL   REDEMPTION.  \J\ 

the  lowest  and  most  savage  natures  of  the  animal 
kingdom,  its  wolves,  its  tigers,  and  its  serpents.  And 
neither  science  nor  civilization  have  sovereign  power 
to  soften  or  subdue  its  spirit.  On  the  other  hand, 
they  only  make  its  weapons  more  polished  and  keen 
and  withal  more  destructive.  They  change  the  war- 
club  first  for  the  spear  and  the  sword,  and  then  for 
shot  and  shell.  And  what  a  spectacle  has  the  world 
presented  of  the  many  in  subjection  to  the  few !  the 
human  wolves  and  tigers  on  the  kingly  and  priestly 
thrones  ;  the  multitudes  driven  into  slaughter-pens 
as  if  they  were  so  many  herds  of  animals  to  be  ex- 
tinguished without  remorse.  Good  heavens  !  we  ex- 
claim, as  we  follow  the  track  of  history ;  is  this  the 
story  of  our  race  or  of  some  other ;  were  these  men 
and  women  who  could  feel  and  sympathize  and 
reason  and  suffer,  or  were  they  the  monsters  of  a 
geologic  age  before  the  earth  had  become  green,  and 
before  the  sun  had  begun  fairly  to  shine  ?  But  they 
were  the  material  which  Christianity  had  to  work 
upon  ;  they  were  the  people  from  which  we  have  de- 
scended, and  the  first  achievement  of  Christianity 
was  to  rescue  the  many  from  the  cruelties  of  the 
few,  that  the  human  creation  need  no  longer  travail 
in  pain  for  its  deliverance. 

II.  But  the  animal  creation  needed  deliverance 
as  much  and  even  more  ;  for  these  are  dumb  na- 
tures that  could  not  tell  their  wrongs,  and  have  no 
power  to  redress  them.     The  animals  had  no  rights 


172  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

which  men  considered  themselves  bound  to  respect. 
And  yet  the  susceptibility  to  suffering  of  the  more 
sensitive  animals  is  equal  to,  and  even  greater,  than 
that  of  many  human  beings.  They  are  capable,  not 
only  of  bodily  suffering,  but  suffering  from  fear,  ter- 
ror, grief,  anguish,  and  the  baffled  yearnings  of  those 
instincts  which  are  the  endowments  of  all  animal 
natures.  They  are  capable,  too,  of  being  brought  into 
such  sympathy  with  man  as  to  reflect  back  upon  him, 
not  only  the  kindness  and  affection  of  his  nature,  but 
also  some  flashes  of  his  reason  and  intelligence. 
How  desolate  the  earth  would  be  without  them  ! 
How  vacant  the  air  if  they  did  not  winnow  it  with 
their  wings  and  turn  it  into  songs  and  serenades  ! 
What  a  solitude  were  the  woods  and  the  groves  un- 
less they  were  made  alive  with  these  natives  that 
fill  them  with  the  signs  of  delight  and  joy,  and  with 
the  exquisite  grace  of  form  and  motion,  and  some- 
times with  melodies  more  sweet  than  the  music  we 
hear  in  churches  !  And  what  a  helpless  being  were 
civilized  man,  unless  "  every  living  thing  that  moveth 
on  the  earth "  were  brought  into  his  service  and 
made  obedient  to  his  will !  Through  the  air,  the 
earth,  and  the  sea,  the  Creator  has  poured  these 
streams  of  conscious  life,  in  order  that  the  whole  uni- 
verse down  even  through  its  smallest  veins  shall 
throb  with  happiness  and  joy.  If  He  had  not  created 
them  for  enjoyment,  would  He  have  organized  them 
so  finely  and  sent  nerves  of  feeling  all  through  them 


THE   UNIVERSAL   REDEMPTION.  1 73 

to  thrill  with  pleasure ;  would  He  have  made  the 
gambols  of  the  squirrel  exhilarating  as  the  play  of 
children  upon  the  village  green  ;  would  He  have  made 
the  linnet  to  delight  in  the  gushes  of  his  own  song  ; 
would  He  have  given  instinct  to  the  dog  mighty  as 
our  human  affection,  whose  disappointment  is  so 
cruel  that  he  dies  of  bereavement ;  would  He  have 
put  such  meaning  into  the  appealing  eye  and  voice 
of  the  horse  and  the  kine,  and  such  a  tongue  in  their 
groans  and  agonies  ;  would  He  have  secreted  in  the 
eye-vessels  of  the  deer  those  little  reservoirs  of 
water,  to  roll  down  his  cheeks  in  great  tear-drops  of 
anguish  when  hunted  and  wounded  by  ruthless  men  ? 
Oh,  if  these  creatures  over  which  man  has  dominion 
had  a  language  in  which  to  send  up  their  petitions 
and  publish  their  oppressions  and  wrongs,  it  would 
fill  quite  as  large  a  volume,  and  quite  as  thick  with 
blood-stains  as  any  book  of  human  oppressions  and 
martyrdoms.  And  yet  the  pleadings  go  up  daily 
to  the  eternal  mercy  from  this  lower  creation  that 
groan  eth  and  travaileth  in  pain  together  until  now ! 

In  the  Oriental  superstitions  there  was  often  an 
infusion  of  mercy,  and  they  were  permitted  because 
they  brought  animals  and  birds,  and  insects  even, 
into  tender  sympathy  with  humanity  as  if  they  were 
a  part  of  it.  The  doctrine  of  transmigration  taught 
that  human  souls  had  become  reincarnate  in  the  bod- 
ies of  animals,  where  they  were  doing  penance  for 
their  former  sins,  and  so  the  Brahmin  hears  from  out 


174  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

these  animal  natures  muffled  human  voices,  and  sees 
human  eyes,  as  it  were,  looking  up  and  pleading  for 
sympathy  and  protection.  It  was  a  heathen  super- 
stition with  a  half  truth  in  it,  and  this  half  truth  has 
done  in  pagan  lands  what  the  Christian  whole  truth 
should  have  done  long  ago  in  ours  ;  for  it  should 
have  made  the  brute  creation  so  far  forth  partakers 
in  the  human  redemption  as  to  banish  all  need- 
less suffering  down  even  to  the  insect  that  sports  in 
the  morning  sunbeam.  The  wholesale  slaughtering 
warfare  which  has  been  made  upon  them  is  not  less 
horrible  than  our  wars  of  race  with  race  and  nation 
with  nation,  and  not  less  opposed  to  the  millennial 
reign  of  peace  and  good-will  on  the  earth.  As  long 
as  man  "  murders  their  species  "  he  will  "  betray  his 
own  ; "  for  the  spirit  of  murder  and  treachery  enters 
into  him  and  takes  possession  and  goes  out  anew  to 
desolate  the  earth.  In  the  new  Christian  civilization 
that  is  now  dawning,  many  an  Agassiz  is  to  arise  and 
plead  the  cause  of  those  who  could  only  plead  for 
themselves  in  dumb  agonies  ;  is  to  reveal  the  nature 
of  these  tribes  below  us  ;  which  are  the  noxious  and 
which  are  harmless  ;  which  are  man's  allies  and  help- 
ers and  which  are  not ;  how  death  for  them  as  for 
human  beings  may  be  deprived  of  its  sting,  and  how 
every  needless  pang  inflicted  cries  both  to  God  and 
man  for  avenging  justice.  How  strange  that  instead 
of  admiring  the  exquisite  divine  workmanship  in  the 
wing  of  the  bird  a  man  should  lurk  in  the  thicket  as  an 


THE    UNIVERSAL   REDEMPTION.  175 

assassin  ;  instead  of  joining  his  note  to  her  morning 
song,  should  delight  only  to  turn  it  into  a  death-note 
or  quench  the  music  of  the  groves  in  innocent  blood  ! 
"  New  Studies  in  Natural  History!"  —  it  is  to  be 
hoped  they  will  be  introduced  not  only  into  the  col- 
leges but  into  the  schools  and  the  nurseries  and  the 
Sunday-schools,  until  all  God's  innocent  creatures 
shall  have  protection  under  Christianity  as  well  as 
heathenism.  For  there  is  a  quasi-humanity  in  these 
dumb  animals.  Theodore  Parker  believed  some  of 
them  immortal ;  I  trust  they  are  not,  for  alas  !  what 
multitudes  of  them  would  rise  up  in  another  state  to 
confront  their  human  murderers  at  the  judgment- 
seat  !  But  then  what  human  qualities  are  drawn  out 
of  them  by  the  power  of  kindness  !  What  constancy 
and  affection  and  gratitude  that  rebuke  and  shame 
the  selfishness  of  men !  What  sympathy  with  the 
beauty  and  grandeur  in  nature,  and  sometimes  in  art 
even,  when  what  is  noble  and  good  is  appealed  to  and 
brought  into  manifestation  !  The  horses  of  the  cir- 
cus will  keep  step  to  strains  of  exhilarating  music 
with  a  conscious  delight,  till  you  begin  to  wonder 
which  is  the  more  human,  the  horse  or  the  mounte- 
bank that  rides  upon  his  back.  The  long  cavalcade 
moves  to  martial  strains,  the  animals  quite  as  much 
as  the  men,  with  a  pride  and  a  glorying  in  their  eyes 
and  nostrils  ;  their  necks  "  clothed  with  thunder  "  and 
their  feet  in  rhythmic  dances,  as  if  one  spirit  had 
entered  them  all  and  moved  them  with  one  purpose 
and  will. 


1/6  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

In  that  day  when  the  savagery  in  men  has  been 
eliminated  or  softened  down,  the  savagery  in  brute 
natures  will  be  softened  also  as  reflecting  his  own 
nature  back  upon  him  ;  for  there  are  fine  invisible 
nerves  that  pervade  all  the  universe  and  run  down 
from  man  into  all  the  lower  creation,  and  when  he  is 
himself  redeemed  will  draw  the  lower  creation  to- 
wards him  and  harmonize  it  with  him  in  one  great 
atonement.  For  in  just  the  measure  that  the  lion  in 
man's  nature  lies  down  with  the  lamb,  just  in  the 
same  measure  will  the  peace  be  radiated  on  all  things 
about  him.  And  so  to  fulfill  the  old  prophecy  spirit- 
ually will  tend  in  some  sort  to  its  fulfilment  literally. 

"  The  wolf  shall  dwell  with  the  lamb, 
And  the  leopard  shall  lie  down  with  the  kid  ; 
The  calf  and  the  young  lion  and  the  fatling  shall  be  together, 
And  a  little  child  shall  lead  them. 
The  suckling  shall  play  upon  the  hole  of  the  asp, 
And  the  new-weaned  child  lay  his  hand  on  the  hiding-place  of  the 

adder. 
They  shall  not  hurt  nor  destroy  in  all  my  holy  mountain  : 
For  the  land  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord, 
As  the  waters  cover  the  depths  of  the  sea." 

III.  But  will  the  redemption  stop  here  ?  No,  it 
must  keep  on  till  all  insensate  and  inanimate  things 
as  well  are  made  partakers  of  it.  By  a  bold  personi- 
fication, as  I  understand  him,  the  Apostle  gives  to  the 
earth  itself  a  sort  of  consciousness  of  the  woes  and 
sufferings  on  its  surface.  It  is  what  the  old  prophets 
had   done  before,  when  they  made  all  nature  sym- 


THE    UXIVERSAL   REDEMPTION.  IJJ 

pathize  with  man  both  in  his  joys  and  his  sorrows. 
When  man  rejoices,  "  the  mountains  can  break  forth 
into  singing  and  all  the  trees  of  the  field  can  clap 
their  hands  ; "  and  again  the  innocent  blood  can  cry 
from  the  ground  as  if  the  earth  kept  throwing  it  up 
and  refused  to  drink  it  in.  The  ear  of  the  prophet 
seemed  to  catch  the  undertones  of  nature  and  hear 
her  cry,  as  if  the  earth  had  a  voice  and  said  :  "  O  ye 
children  of  men,  how  long  will  ye  turn  the  treasures 
which  I  yield  to  base  and  cruel  ends  !  How  long 
will  ye  rend  my  bosom  to  find  the  enginery  of  de- 
struction, not  of  beneficence  and  mercy  !  How  long 
will  ye  dig  the  mines  I  hold  in  trust  for  you  — 
the  gold,  the  iron,  the  nitre  and  the  gems  —  to  sate 
your  avarice,  cruelty,  and  pride,  and  not  rather  to 
cover  me  with  the  arts  and  industries  of  benefice  and 
peace  ?  How  long  will  ye  distill  the  juices  of  my 
vineyards  and  orchards  for  your  drunkenness  and 
revelry  ?  And  how  long  must  I  receive  the  bodies 
of  your  murdered  victims  and  throw  them  up  again 
before  the  heavens  that  look  down  as  the  witnesses 
against  you  ? "  All  this,  you  will  say,  is  figure  ;  but  it 
is  not  all  figure.  There  is  a  sort  of  sympathy  of  all 
nature  with  all  humanity.  She  copies  out  of  man 
what  is  in  him,  that  he  may  see  himself  face  to  face. 
And  so  her  types  beneficent  will  grow  fairer  to  us,  and 
sparkle  with  a  more  glorious  beauty  as  we  grow 
better  and  drink  more  largely  the  spirit  of  mercy  ; 
and  her  ugly  deformities  will  grow  more  ugly  if  they 


178  SERMONS  AXD  SONGS. 

become  the  looking-glass  of  our  own  mind.  Yea, 
more,  every  man  in  some  sort  creates  the  world  he 
lives  in  and  makes  the  sunshine  he  sees  about  him, 
for  his  own  spirit  is  the  prismatic  ground  from  which 
the  light  is  turned  into  sweet  colorings  and  reflec- 
tions of  the  smile  of  God  ;  while  again, 

"  He  who  has  foul  thoughts  and  a  dark  soul, 
Benighted  walks  under  the  midday  sun, 
Himself  is  the  own  dungeon." 

And  what  is  this  world  outside  of  us  which  we  call 
nature  but  the  changeable  vesture  which  the  Creator 
casts  about  us  ?  It  is  not  fixed  and  dead,  but  a  fresh 
creation  of  God  every  hour.  It  always  has  had  its 
adaptations  to  the  beings  on  its  surface,  and  it  always 
must  have.  And  so  man's  redemption  is  at  the  same 
time  the  redemption  of  all  the  creatures  over  which 
he  has  dominion,  and  the  redemption  of  nature 
from  the  curse  that  lay  upon  it,  for  the  curse  is  pri- 
marily in  himself.  Let  his  own  mind  and  heart  be- 
come paradisical  and  he  will  enter  paradise  again,  for 
its  light  will  be  on  the  fields,  the  rivers,  and  the 
mountains.  "  Instead  of  the  thorn  shall  come  up 
the  fir-tree,  and  instead  of  the  brier  shall  come  up  the 
myrtle-tree,"  and  the  three  kingdoms  of  earth  — 
man  and  animal  and  inanimate  nature  —  be  delivered 
from  the  bondage  of  corruption  into  the  glorious 
liberty  of  the  children  of  God. 

Such  is  the  extent  of  the  gospel  redemption  !  It 
moves  on  steadily  and  surely.     If  it  has  not  yet  in- 


THE   UNIVERSAL   REDEMPTION.  1 79 

volved  you  it  is  because  you  choose  to  withstand  it 
and  will  not  put  yourself  into  its  plastic  hands.  For 
it  works  not  by  magic,  but  by  its  own  laws  and  meth- 
ods. The  Jesus  Christ  who  met  Saul  of  Tarsus  on 
his  way  and  melted  all  his  cruelties  out  of  him,  that 
he  might  become  the  prophet  of  a  Gospel  so  humane 
and  tender,  has  the  same  power  over  us  as  over  him  ; 
is  just  as  near  us  behind  these  clouds  of  sense,  and 
in  a  power  and  splendor  more  warm  and  bright  than 
the  Syrian  noon  ;  and  only  asks  of  us  a  childlike 
surrender  to  his  sovereign  creative  power,  that  he 
may  work  the  same  transformation,  and  change  all 
the  native  fountains  of  gall  into  the  milk  of  kindness. 


THE  YOUNG  HUNTER.1 

"  Come,  my  boy,  and  in  the  meadows 
Tend  the  little  lambs  to-day  ; 
Play  with  them  beside  the  brooklets 
Where  they  pluck  the  flowers  so  gay.- 
u  Mother,  mother,  with  my  bow 
To  the  mountains  I  must  go." 

H  Why  not  with  the  horn's  brisk  music 
Lead  the  cattle  through  the  dells  ? 
Lovely  in  the  Alpine  pastures 
Is  the  tinkling  of  the  bells." 
"  On  the  mountains  with  my  bow, 
Mother,  mother,  let  me  go." 

"  Go  and  tend  the  flowerets,  blooming 
In  their  garden  beds,  my  child  ; 
In  the  garden  all  is  pleasant,  — 
But  the  mountain-tops,  how  wild  !  " 
"  Let  the  flowerets  bloom  and  grow, 
Mother,  mother,  let  me  go  ! " 

Through  the  mountain's  wildest  regions 
The  young  hunter  rushed  away, 

Where  the  steep  and  winding  pathway 
Scarcely  sees  the  light  of  day, 

And  before  the  hunter  near 

Flies  the  swift  gazelle  in  fear. 

1  A  translation  from  Schiller. 


1 82  SERMONS  AXD  SOXGS. 

Climbing  with  a  breezy  motion, 
On  the  ribs  of  rock  she  clings.  ; 

O'er  the  deeply  yawning  fissures 
With  a  lightsome  bound  she  springs  ; 

And  the  hunter  from  below, 

Follows  with  his  deadly  bow. 

Now  she  gains  a  rocky  splinter, 
Hanging  from  its  highest  steep  ; 

There  she  sees  the  pathway  vanish, 
And  before  the  dreadful  deep,  — 

Sees  the  fatal  steep  below, 

And  behind,  her  cruel  foe. 

With  a  look  of  deepest  sorrow 

And  beseeching  agony, 
Turns  she  toward  her  cruel  hunter, 

Dumbly  pleading  with  her  eye  ; 
But  regardless  of  her  woe 
He  levels  straight  the  deadly  bow. 

Sudden  from  a  rocky  fissure 
Rose  a  form  of  awful  grace  ; 

'T  was  the  Spirit  of  the  Mountain, 
'T  was  the  Genius  of  the  place  ; 

And  the  quivering  gazelle 

With  his  hands  he  shielded  well. 

Then  he  turned  upon  the  hunter 

While  his  eyes  with  anger  glowed 

"  Must  you  carry  death  and  sorrow 

Clear  up  here  to  mine  abode  ? 

Earth  has  room  for  all  her  own, 

Let  my  beauteous  flock  alone  !  " 


XII. 

THE  BOX  OF   OINTMENT. 

Mark  xiv.  8.     She  hath  do7ie  what  she  could. 

BY  collating  the  synoptics  with  John,  we  bring 
before  us  very  distinctly  the  whole  scene. 
Jesus  enters  the  house  of  Simon  weary  with  travel, 
and  with  his  mind  filled  with  images  of  his  approach- 
ing death,  and  this  woman  comes  in  with  a  box  of 
liquid  balsam  with  which  she  bathes  his  feet,  while 
with  spice-waters  she  bathes  his  aching  brow.  The 
room  is  filled  with  the  perfume.  Judas  reproves  the 
woman  for  wasting  the  balsam,  while  Jesus  com- 
mends her,  and  assures  the  disciples  that  the  fra- 
grance of  this  deed  shall  yet  fill  the  whole  world. 

This  woman  had  seen  the  miracles  of  Christ, 
and  heard  his  heavenly  speech,  and  been  persuaded 
of  his  Divine  character  and  mission.  And  then 
the  question  naturally  arises,  What  can  I  do  for 
him  ?  I,  —  without  power,  or  wealth,  or  position  in 
the  world.  I  can  give  nothing  but  an  expression  of 
sympathy  and  good-will.  So  she  seizes  impulsively 
the  costliest  thing  she  had,  and  lavishes  it  upon  the 
person  of  her  Lord.     It  was  all  she  could  do.     And 


184  SERMOATS  AND  SONGS. 

when  Judas  rebukes  the  woman,  Jesus  rebukes  his 
disciple.  "  Let  her  alone.  Wherever  the  Gospel  is 
preached  in  all  time,  this  deed  shall  be  recounted 
with  it  as  exhaling  its  spirit  of  devoted  love."  She 
hath  done  what  she  could.  Have  the  most  earnest 
and  self-sacrificing  among  you  done  any  more  ? 

This  little^  piece  of  biography,  however,  has  come 
down  to  us,  not  merely  to  immortalize  the  memory 
of  this  humble  disciple,  but  to  embody  and  illustrate 
forever  the  doctrine  of  the  Master.  For  this  doc- 
trine is  preserved  most  perfectly  in  the  narratives 
of  the  New  Testament.  You  are  not  sure  of  the 
meaning  when  you  get  into  Paul's  metaphysics,  who 
uses  the  nomenclature  of  the  old  Jewish  schools  ; 
but  you  never  mistake  the  meaning  in  these  scraps 
of  biography,  where  the  truth  lives  and  breathes,  and 
is  fragrant  through  all  time. 

The  feeling  which  prompted  this  deed  of  per- 
sonal faith  and  affection,  is  one,  I  suppose,  which 
every  Christian  heart  is  sometimes  conscious  of. 
What  can  I  do  for  Christ  ?  How  wide  and  how 
great  is  the  work  to  be  done,  and  how  little  is  my 
share  in  it  ! 

And  there  is  no  person  whose  religious  experi- 
ence is  any  way  profound,  who  has  not  been  brought 
sometimes  to  a  point  where  the  dread  account 
seems  to  be  striking  the  balance  and  going  down 
heavily  against  him ;  some  hour  of  painful  self- 
analysis,  some  day  when   sickness  laid    you    down, 


THE   BOX  OE  OINTMENT        .  1 85 

and  in  the  stillness  of  the  room  your  past  life 
seemed  to  stream  over  your  memory  like  a  flame, 
and  disclose  its  record,  somewhat  as  it  will  be  dis- 
closed at  the  judgment-bar.  At  these  times,  what 
is  done  looks  so  indescribably  poor  and  meagre, 
tainted  with  all  manner  of  imperfection,  having  all 
your  faults  of  temper  put  into  it,  and  all  your  mis- 
takes of  method,  that  you  turn  away  with  loathing, 
and  it  is  not  strange  at  all  that  in  this  state  of  mind 
so  many  have  sought  for  peace  in  imputed  or  facti- 
tious righteousness.  And  then  come  our  failures 
every  day  in  our  efforts  to  build  up  a  perfect  charac- 
ter. Some  taint  of  self  is  sure  to  get  into  it  ;  some 
invading  temptation  is  sure  to  assail  it,  and  in  one 
hour  lay  all  the  flourishing  structure  in  the  dust. 
And  then  the  old  question  comes  back  with  tenfold 
pungency,  How  shall  man  be  justified  before  God  ? 
It  is  a  very  simple  question,  but  it  goes  so  directly  to 
the  very  substance  of  the  Gospel  that  it  has  been 
the  main  work  of  theology  to  answer  it,  for  eighteen 
hundred  years. 

But  we  will  endeavor  to  grasp  the  principle  which 
lies  at  the  heart  of  this  beautiful  narrative ;  we 
must  see  the  Gospel  truth  embodied  there,  and 
which  alone  has  filled  the  world  with  the  perfume 
of  this  woman's  deed,  and  earned  the  benediction  of 
her  Lord. 

I.  The  question  so  long  debated  about  works, 
gets   here   a   very   definite   answer.     It   is   not  the 


1 86  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

amount  nor  the  extent  of  a  man's  well-doing,  that 
makes  his  deeds  a  fragrant  sacrifice  unto  God.  I 
think  the  lives  of  the  great  saints  and  great  heroes 
have  sometimes  a  very  depressing  influence  upon  us 
who  cannot  be  great  in  anything.  This  woman's 
life,  judged  so,  were  a  total  failure.  But  one  deed 
of  affection  has  brought  her  fully  into  light,  and 
placed  her  example  aloft  to  demonstrate  wherever 
the  Gospel  is  preached,  that  those  who  do  what 
they  can  in  the  humblest  and  meanest  sphere  of 
duty,  are  equal  before  God  with  those  who  do  the 
most,  though  they  cover  the  world  with  blessings. 
Judged  by  our  achievements  there  is  poor  prospect 
for  any  of  us.  Even  great  men,  and  famous  men, 
out  of  their  insignificant  individualism  accomplish 
little.  Judged  so,  and  falling  back  into  their  own 
proper  selves,  they  are  weak  and  puny  enough. 
Only  because  they  are  put  in  representative  posi- 
tions where  they  are  exponents  of  something  be- 
yond themselves,  they  become  great.  No  mortal 
man  is  great  in  himself  ;  he  only  becomes  so  by  rep- 
resenting some  tract,  great  or  small,  of  the  Divine 
Providence.  Just  before  the  fact  related  in  the  text 
was  transpiring,  a  young  man,  a  boy,  you  might  say, 
was  raised  by  circumstances  to  the  throne  of  the 
Caesars.  He  took  the  title  of  Great ;  his  glory 
filled  the  civilized  world,  and  the  age  was  called 
by  his  name.  And  yet  this  woman  with  her  box 
of  ointment  has   made   a   single   deed   of  personal 


THE  BOX  OF  OINTMENT.  1 87 

love  to  diffuse  a  wider  and  sweeter  fragrance  than 
all  the  deeds  of  Augustus  Caesar.  So  you  see  it  is 
not  how  much  we  have  done,  but  what  we  have 
tried  to  do,  that  justifies  us  before  God.  He  does 
not  need  our  success  to  help  on  his  infinite  plan. 
That  plan  proceeds  by  our  failures  as  by  our  tri- 
umphs. Both  are  alike  to  him,  for  He  takes 
them  both  up,  transfigures  them,  and  weaves  them 
into  his  cloth  of  gold,  that  makes  up  the  warp  and 
the  woof  of  time.  And  I  am  not  sure,  if  we  look 
well  at  the  matter,  but  we  shall  find  that  when  the 
vast  fabric  has  all  been  woven,  the  mistakes  and 
weaknesses  of  men,  the  blunders  and  failures,  will 
show  as  important  threads  as  their  most  splendid 
success  and  victories.  Even  so  the  Gethsemanes, 
the  Pharsalias,  and  the  Bull  Runs  of  history,  help 
the  Divine  plan,  along  with  the  Plateas,  the  York- 
towns,  and  the  Gettysburgs.  Look  back  you  who 
have  worked  the  hardest  and  the  longest,  and  see 
how  little  is  the  amount  when  you  have  summed 
it  all  up,  and  how  many  a  man  with  larger  machin- 
ery, by  only  setting  it  going  and  looking  on  with 
folded  hands,  has  turned  out  an  aggregate  vastly 
more  substantial  and  magnificent.  Works !  may 
the  Lord  save  us  !  but  is  it  strange  at  all  that  or- 
thodoxy has  decided  that  our  works,  pile  them  up 
as  we  will,  cannot  do  it  ?  for  still  they  are  ragged 
and  incomplete,  and  have  no  rounding  grace  in 
them.     Yes,  —  and  when  we  thought  to  do  the  most 


I  88  SERMONS  AXD  SONGS. 

for  the  Lord,  perchance  we  are  crippled,  and  all 
our  schemes  come  to  nothing  through  a  weakened 
sinew,  or  a  disordered  nerve,  or  some  rebellious  lobe 
in  the  brain  that  refused  its  function. 

If  you  look  through  a  magnifying  glass  upon  one 
of  the  landscape  paintings  of  Titian  you  will  find  that 
the  more  you  magnify  the  more  of  ugliness  and  de- 
formity and  imperfection  will  be  revealed  in  it.  If 
you  look  through  the  same  magnifying  glass  upon 
any  of  God's  works,  if  it  be  only  a  flower,  or  a  snow- 
flake,  you  will  find  that  the  more  you  magnify  the 
more  of  beauty  and  perfection  will  be  revealed.  And 
the  reason  is  this  :  that  man's  weakness  and  limita- 
tion enter  into  the  best  of  his  works,  and  their  most 
exquisite  finish  and  grace  lie  only  on  the  surface  ; 
whereas  in  God's  works,  the  perfection  and  the  beauty 
open  in  endless  perspective  the  more  we  magnify, 
where  we  catch  dissolving  views  of  the  infinite  glory. 

God  will  not  say  to  us,  then,  when  He  calls  us  into 
judgment,  Bring  a  specimen  of  your  work,  and  let 
me  see  with  what  finish  and  completeness  you  have 
turned  it  out.  Turn  it  out  as  we  will  it  has  no  round 
and  complete  grace,  and  all  our  piled  up  manufact- 
ures cannot  reach  into  heaven.  Xo  —  but  there  is 
another  test  by  which  He  will  judge  us  and  by  which 
He  judges  us  now.  Not  by  what  we  have  done,  but 
by  what  zve  have  tried  to  do  shall  we  be  judged,  and 
even  our  everlasting  destiny  determined.  What  we 
have  planned  and  purposed  and  tried  to  execute  — 


THE  BOX  OF  OINTMENT.  1 89 

these  are  the  tests — no  matter  if  in  the  execution 
we  run  against  walls  and  barricades  every  hour. 
Hell  is  paved  with  good  intentions,  says  an  old  the- 
ologian, in  this  as  in  other  things  turning  the  truth 
exactly  upside  down.  Heaven  is  paved  with  good 
intentions  and  with  nothing  else.  "  She  hath  done 
what  she  could."  Not  performances,  but  endeavors, 
He  asks  of  us  ;  and  if  the  endeavors  be  honest  and 
hearty,  no  matter,  as  God  sees  us,  how  ragged  and 
incomplete  the  execution.  And  here  we  can  imitate 
God  and  be  like  Him,  having  the  same  end  and  aim  ; 
and  herein  He  works  with  us  and  is  glorified  in  us,  — 
taking  up  our  poor  performance  and  weaving  it  into 
the  woof  of  his  infinite  providence. 

And  so  we  find  that  the  poor  woman  who  put 
three  mites  into  the  treasury  since  it  was  one  hun- 
dred per  cent,  of  her  income,  and  the  Mary  who 
balmed  his  head  with  balsam  odors,  since  it  was  all 
she  could  do,  are  the  equals  of  him  who  girdles  the 
globe  with  charities,  since,  though  not  alike  in  what 
they  have  done,  they  are  alike  in  what  they  have 
tried  to  do. 

So  this  box  of  perfume  has  not  only  preserved  this 
woman's  deed  and  diffused  its  savor  over  Christen- 
dom—  it  has  brought  down  and  preserved  with  it 
this  principle  of  gospel  justification,  that  not  by  the 
grand  total  of  your  success,  but  by  your  strivings 
after  it,  you  are  to  be  judged  at  the  bar  of  God  and 
obtain  his  benediction  of  Well  done. 


190  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

II.  So  much  about  works.  But  this  is  not  all. 
What  the  faith  is  that  saves  us  comes  out  with 
equal  clearness.  Do  you  suppose  this  woman  could 
have  made  a  statement  of  her  theology  that  the  syn- 
ods and  councils  would  have  accepted  ?  And  yet 
here  is  faith  most  wonderful  and  abounding  —  faith 
in  the  sense  of  confiding  and  trusting,  such  confiding 
as  made  one  give  up  the  costliest  thing  she  had,  and 
waste  it  in  the  lavishment  of  affection. 

If  there  is  anything  which  the  New  Testament 
makes  clear  beyond  all  cavil,  it  is  that  no  amount 
of  statement  and  definition  constitutes  that  faith  in 
Christ,  which  justifies  and  saves.  Not  by  any  means, 
however,  would  we  deny  that  our  conception  of  the 
Gospel  may  be  very  usefully  defined  and  formulated 
so  that  we  can  handle  it  and  teach  it,  and  carry  it 
about  in  distinct  propositions,  and  have  resting-places 
for  the  intellect.  But  formulate  it  as  we  will,  we  are 
still  to  remember,  that  our  richest,  tenderest  experi- 
ences of  its  adorable  mercy  elude  our  statements 
and  lose  their  flavor  in  our  words.  That,  indeed,  is 
the  mystic  meaning  of  the  odors  of  this  sacred  balm. 
They  mean  the  ineffable  love  with  which  all  saving 
faith  is  fragrant.  They  mean  that  the  faith  in  Christ 
that  saves  us  is  the  faith  of  the  heart.  You  cannot 
any  more  than  this  woman  answer  all  the  questions 
about  the  nature  of  Christ  and  his  mystic  union  with 
the  Father  ;  but  you  can,  like  her,  see  the  Divine 
glory  in  his  word  and  in  his  works  by  following  Him 


THE  BOX  OF  OINTMENT.  191 

in  the  regeneration,  and  to  that  faith  comes  all  the 
knowledge  of  his  nature  that  is  living  and  saving. 

It  is  a  distinguishing  excellence  of  Christianity  that 
it  presents  to  the  believer  a  personal  object  around 
which  his  affections  cling.  It  is  not  a  philosophy  of 
God,  but  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  It  is  not  a  dry 
code  of  rules  and  morals,  but  morality  turned  into 
breathing  life.  How  wonderful  and  how  thrilling 
the  thought !  that  the  Infinite  Reason  should  become 
the  word  made  flesh  ;  should  come  down  into  our 
human  conditions  ;  wrap  around  it  the  garments 
of  our  humanity,  and  consent  to  receive  our  human 
sympathies  and  our  personal  loves.  Hence  it  is  that 
Christian  faith  is  so  unlike  all  other  faith,  expelling 
the  savageness  from  human  nature,  and  melting  the 
ice  out  of  the  heart,  because  it  draws  into  itself  all 
the  tenderness  of  personal  devotion.  Mr.  Burke  has 
said,  "  Nothing  is  harder  than  the  heart  of  a  meta- 
physician." So  you  find  it  when  you  compare  Saul 
of  Tarsus  with  Paul  to  the  Gentiles  —  the  first  harder 
than  adamant,  the  last  tender  as  a  woman.  And  yet 
his  creed  had  not  very  much  changed,  but  a  personal 
Saviour  crossed  his  path  and  melted  all  the  flint 
out  of  him,  and  filled  his  heart  till  it  brimmed  over 
with  the  love  of  Christ.  And  so  this  humble  woman 
who  knew  nothing  about  what  they  call  the  hy- 
postatic union,  when  she  saw  this  Divine  Person 
walking  through  Palestine  took  the  costliest  thing 
she  had  and  ran  to    bathe  him  with    its  fragrance. 


192  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

It    was    heart-faith  ;    and    the    Master   said,   "  Well 
done." 

But  it  lies  upon  us  to  bring  out  another  as- 
pect of  the  Christian  doctrine.  "  She  hath  done 
what  she  could."  Very  consoling  words,  if  we  can 
be  sure  they  apply  to  us.  Very  pungent  condemna- 
tion if  they  apply  not,  and  we  suffer  opportunities 
to  go  by.  The  rule  demands  no  impossibilities  ;  but 
it  does  demand  that  every  sphere,  however  humble, 
shall  be  filled  with  divine  endeavors.  You  have  not 
done  what  you  could  if  you  have  not  made  it  the 
problem  of  every  day  ;  how  many  burdens  can  I 
make  lighter  ?  how  much  heart  sunshine  can  I  shed 
about  me  ?  how  much  can  I  increase  the  sum  of 
human  blessing  in  the  circle  where  my  lines  have 
fallen  ?  How  easily  we  slide  into  the  delusion  that 
we  should  do  a  great  deal  more  good  if  we  had  the 
means,  overlooking  the  means  that  lie  close  about 
us  ! 

There  is  one  expression  in  the  words  of  Jesus  in 
the  immediate  context  which  is  burdened  with  a 
meaning  not  apparent  on  the  surface.  "  Let  her 
alone,"  He  says  to  the  meddling  disciple  with  his 
paltry  arithmetic,  "  she  hath  wrought  a  good  work 
upon  me."  She  hath  prepared  me  for  burial.  As 
if  He  had  said,  I  feel  better  prepared  for  the  agony 
and  death  before  me  for  what  this  woman  has  done. 
I  am  going  to  the  tomb  balmed  with  the  love  of 
this   humble  disciple.     "  She  hath  wrought    a  good 


THE  BOX  OF  OINTMENT.  T93 

work  upon  me."  How  wonderful,  and  yet  how  very 
natural !  The  Christ  stood  alone  ;  not  one  of  his 
disciples  understood  Him.  It  appals  us,  almost,  to 
think  of  the  isolation  of  that  awful  solitude.  And 
yet  this  majestic  Son  of  God  receives  the  consola- 
tions of  human  sympathy,  and  goes  to  the  cross 
soothed  and  sustained  by  the  balm  of  the  heart  rep- 
resented by  the  perfume  which  this  Mary  pours  over 
his  hair.  Most  touchingly  it  betokens  to  us  how 
much  dependence  there  is  on  human  sympathies 
where  we  least  expect  it  and  never  look  for  it,  and 
how  much  the  humblest  individual,  following  the 
promptings  of  a  full  heart  and  on  the  watch  for  oc- 
casions, may  diffuse  consolation  and  light  up  the 
circle  where  God  has  placed  him  with  the  sunshine 
of  the  soul.  We  should  cease  to  be  dazzled  with 
the  pomps  and  grandeurs  of  earth,  or  think  that 
opportunities  only  come  with  great  occasions,  if 
by  doing  what  we  could  we  discovered  the  vast  re- 
sources of  good  that  lie  about  us,  more  precious 
when  found  and  opened  than  mines  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver. For  observe  —  it  is  not  generally  great  benefits 
and  great  favors  that  men  need  from  each  other  to 
make  their  burdens  light  and  sweeten  their  daily 
toil.  It  is  the  cheering  Godspeed,  the  word  fitly 
spoken,  the  counsel  inspired  by  brotherly  kindness, 
the  wisdom  of  experience  supplied  to  some  one  who 
is  losing  his  way ;  it  is  the  alabaster  box  of  oint- 
ment, that  makes  the  family,  the  neighborhood,  the 
r3 


194  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

whole  sphere  in  which  God  has  made  us  to  move, 
to  be  filled  with  the  odors  of  the  Gospel.  There  is 
more  suffering  in  this  world,  ten  thousand  times 
over,  from  heart-wants,  than  from  the  wants  of  the 
body,  and  there  is  not  a  person  who  hears  me  who 
could  not  do  something  for  another  with  the  box  of 
odors  which  the  largess  of  an  emperor  could  never 
accomplish.  For  there  is  a  great  deal  of  misery 
which  is  locked  in  and  treasured  up  in  one's  own 
keeping  as  something  which  cannot  be  helped,  but 
which  the  precious  ointment  of  humane  and  gentle 
sympathies  would  wonderfully  assuage,  and  perhaps 
entirely  cure.  If  so  great  a  Being  as  the  Son  of 
God  was.  soothed  and  helped  on  his  way  to  the  cross 
by  this  fragrant  anointing,  do  you  think  there  can  be 
any  one  who  wears  this  humanity  which  He  wrapt 
about  him,  who  could  not  be  helped  in  the  same  way, 
in  those  hours,  and  they  are  many,  when  "  the 
weary  weight  of  all  this  unintelligible  world  "  hangs 
hard  and  heavy  upon  him  ?  You  have  done  what 
you  could,  only  when  you  have  been  watchful  for 
occasions,  and  so  prevented  the  gratings  of  evil  for- 
tune over  the  hearts  that  beat  all  about  you,  by  dif- 
fusing over  them  the  oil  of  kindness. 

So  we  bring  forth  the  truth  which  has  its  beauti- 
ful setting  in  this  evangelic  narrative.  Briefly  we 
apply  it  in  two  ways  :  — 

We  apply  it  to  those  who  waste  their  time  in  vain 
anxieties,   morbid    regrets,  and    disappointments   at 


THE  BOX  OF  OINTMENT.  1 95 

failure.  Perhaps  there  are  few  earnest  minds  who 
do  not  find  out  ere  the  evening  gathers  about  them 
that  life  has  turned  out  very  different  from  its  early 
and  brilliant  promise. 

"  I  have  lost  the  dream  of  Doing, 
And  the  other  dream  of  Done  ; 
The  first  spring  in  the  pursuing, 
The  first  pride  in  the  Begun, 
First  recoil  of  incompletion  in  the  face  of  what  is  won." 

But  so  it  always  must  be.  The  same  chasm  be- 
tween the  promise  and  the  fulfillment  is  in  the  high- 
est heavens  ;  for  not  the  angel  nearest  unto  God 
has  made  his  deed  perfect  and  brought  down  all  his 
brighest  visions  into  practice.  They  have  done 
what  they  could  must  be  the  condition  of  justifica- 
tion for  evermore.  Not  the  things  done,  but  the  en- 
deavor, must  number  us  with  his  angels,  for  this 
makes  the  heavens  themselves  to  be  sweet  and  clean. 

But  the  sermon  applies  in  another  direction,  to 
those  who  have  powers  they  never  try  to  use,  beset 
with  occasions  they  will  not  see,  or  seeing,  will  not 
turn  to  account,  and  to  whom  come  the  rebuke 
and  condemnation :  "  Take  the  talent  from  him 
and  give  it  to  him  that  hath  ten ;  for  to  him  that 
hath  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall  have  abundance, 
but  from  him  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken  away  even 
that  which  he  hath." 


IDEALS. 

0  bright  Ideals  !  how  ye  shine, 
Aloft  in  realms  of  air  ! 

Ye  pour  your  streams  of  light  divine 
Above  our  low  despair. 

1  've  climbed  and  climbed  these  weary  years 

To  come  your  glories  nigh  ; 
I  'm  tired  of  climbing,  and  in  tears 
Here  on  the  earth  I  lie. 

As  a  weak  child  all  vainly  tries 

To  pluck  the  evening  star, 
So  vain  have  been  my  life-long  cries 

To  reach  up  where  ye  are. 

Shine  on,  shine  on  through  earth's  dark  night, 

Nor  let  your  glories  pale  ! 
Some  stronger  soul  may  win  the  height 

Where  weaker  ones  must  fail. 

And  this  one  thought  of  hope  and  trust 

Comes  with  its  soothing  balm, 
As  here  I  lay  my  brow  in  dust, 

And  breathe  my  lowly  psalm, — 

That  not  for  heights  of  victory  won, 
But  those  I  tried  to  gain, 


I98  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

Will  come  my  gracious  Lord's  "  Well  done," 
And  sweet  effacing  rain. 


Then  on  your  awful  heights  of  blue, 
Shine  on,  forever  shine  ;  — 

I  come  !  I  '11  climb,  I  '11  fly  to  you, 
For  endless  years  are  mine. 


XIII. 

NO  MORE  SEA. 

Revelation  xxi.  2.     And  there  was  no  more  sea. 

r  I  ^HE  figures  of  speech  which  we  find  in  the  Apoc- 
■*-  alypse  are  not  mere  flourishes  of  rhetoric. 
Regard  them  in  connection  with  the  wonderful  ex- 
perience of  the  writer,  and  we  find  that  they  sym- 
bolize the  highest  truths  of  Christianity.  We  must 
avoid  the  error  of  supposing  Divine  Inspiration 
something  arbitrary  and  mechanical,  and  having  no 
reference  to  the  writer's  previous  state  of  mind. 
John  had  been  the  companion  of  Jesus  through  his 
entire  ministry,  public  and  private.  He  drank  in  his 
discourses  and  reproduced  them  when  the  eleven 
could  not  understand  them,  and  sometimes,  where 
the  synoptics  only  report  him  partially,  or  blindly,  and 
in  fragmentary  portions,  John  reports  with  a  fullness 
and  intelligence  that  give  soul  to  them,  and  bind 
them  together  as  an  organic  whole.1  The  figures  of 
speech  which  glow  in  our  Saviour's  language  as  the 
types  of  heavenly  things,  were  preserved  in  the  mem- 
ory of  John  and  remained  there  as  a  living  treasure, 
while  the  other  disciples  seem  never  to  have  taken 

1  Compare  for  instance,  Mark  vi.  32-56,  with  John  vi. 


200  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

in  their  full  meaning.  So  when  the  visions  of  the 
Apocalypse  were  opened  to  him,  these  same  figures 
were  unrolled  before  him  as  an  objective  world  of 
realities.  What  Jesus  described,  John-  saw,  not  in 
written  language,  but  in  long  perspectives  of  imagery 
that  made  a  world  in  itself.  For  example,  Jesus  called 
Himself  "  bread  from  heaven,"  and  "  a  fountain  of 
water  welling  up  unto  everlasting  life."  Eat  me  and 
drink  me  was  his  invitation, —  language  which  seemed 
to  the  disciples  who  stuck  fast  in  the  letter,  mere  in- 
coherent speech ;  and  they  turned  away  from  it. 
John  treasured  it  up  ;  and  so  when  the  same  figures 
of  speech  appeared  in  vision,  he  saw  the  tree  of  life 
hung  with  ambrosial  fruits  to  feed  the  nations,  and 
the  river  clear  as  crystal,  "  coming  out  of  the  throne 
of  God  and  of  the  Lamb  ; "  and  he  heard  over  again 
the  voice  of  invitation,  "  Ho,  every  one  that  thirsteth 
come  ye  to  the  waters  !  " 

In  the  text  and  the  immediate  connection,  if  I  mis- 
take not,  we  have  another  instance  drawn  from  the 
personal  experience  of  the  Apostle.  He  is  on  a  small 
desolate  island  off  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  —  the 
island  of  Patmos.  It  was  a  ledge  of  rocks  not  much 
inhabited,  the  resort  since,  and  perhaps  then,  of  pi- 
rates and  robbers.  Hither  he  is  banished  by  Domi- 
tian,  the  Roman  emperor,  and  here  the  vision  of  the 
Apocalypse  unrolls  its  panorama.  There  is  a  cave 
shown  at  this  day  which,  as  the  monks  will  have  it, 
was  occupied  by  the  Apostle,  —  a  tradition  quite  as 


NO  MORE  SEA.  201 

credible,  and  rather  more  so  than  most  of  their  leg- 
ends. All  around  him  is  the  sea  knocking  against 
this  rocky  prison  with  its  tumbling  waves.  Look 
which  way  he  will  there  is  the  tumultuous  sea  ;  sea 
on  all  sides,  not  wafting  sweet  messages,  nor  the 
wealth  of  commerce,  but  the  booty  of  bandits  and 
thieves.  Sleep  comes  with  the  thunder  of  the  sea 
for  its  lullaby,  and  he  wakes  at  the  music  of  its  roar. 
The  seven  churches  of  Asia  are  over  the  sea,  with 
Jesus  Christ  in  the  midst  of  them  ;  the  seven  golden 
candlesticks  which  take  their  light  and  trick  their 
beams  from  Him.  The  sea,  the  everlasting  sea,  is 
between  him  and  all  that  is  dear  to  him  on  the  earth. 
But  "  I  was  in  spirit,"  he  says,  "  on  the  Lord's  day," 
and  the  higher  world  of  realities  broke  on  his  vision. 
The  sea  rolled  back  its  waves,  away  out  of  sight  and 
out  of  hearing,  and  in  place  thereof  he  is  in  the 
midst  of  the  Paradise  of  God  —  and  then  there  was 
no  more  sea. 

The  dreary  distances  that  lie  between  the  Chris- 
tian believer  and  the  objects  of  his  dearest  hope  and 
expectation  are  most  aptly  represented  in  all  this 
symbolization.  It  brings  this  subject  home  to  us,  — 
the  power  of  Christianity  in  turning  our  earthly  Pat- 
mos  into  Paradise.  This  imagery-  drawn  from  the 
sea  abounds  through  the  whole  Bible.  The  old  Jew- 
ish legend  of  the  Red  Sea  crossing  on  the  way  of  the 
Hebrews  to  the  promised  land,  only  puts  into  figure 
and  parable  our  human  experience  in  the  journey  of 


202  SERMONS  AA'D  SONGS. 

life,  with  the  pillar  of  cloud  or  the  pillar  of  flame  to 
lead  us  on.  The  benefit  of  this  symbolization  is,  that 
it  interprets  to  our  clearer  consciousness  much  that 
else  were  mystical  and  beyond  our  comprehension. 
This  surging  sea  that  lies  between  us  and  the  final 
rest  and  fruition,  and  how  its  waves  are  to  be  stilled, 
or  how  it  shall  cease  to  separate  us  from  the  Paradise 
of  God,  shall  help  us  to-day  in  our  interpretations. 
It  represents  primarily  the  unrest  within  us  ;  it  rep- 
resents the  prospect  of  the  future  as  it  appears  to 
our  weaker  faith,  and  it  represents  our  insulation 
and  loneliness  here  on  the  earth  as  our  friends,  one 
after  another,  cross  over  the  waves,  or  seemingly  sink 
in  them  and  disappear.  And  it  provokes  the  inquiry, 
how  in  the  highest  Christian  experience  there  shall 
be  no  more  sea. 

I.  The  heart  itself,  in  all  its  passions  and  emo- 
tions, is  a  troubled  sea  that  cannot  rest  until  quiet 
from  God  comes  down  upon  the  waters.  There  is  a 
stormy  ocean  that  lies  between  us  and  Him,  and 
there  is  no  crossing  over  it  while  its  waves  are  up. 
Hence,  his  first  command  when  He  comes  to  us  is  a 
"  Peace,  be  still."  What  a  touching  significance  there 
is  in  that  miracle  on  the  lake  of  Galilee  which  the 
painters  have  tried  to  render  —  Christ  stilling  the 
waves  !  The  waves  are  breaking  over  the  vessel  and 
the  winds  are  howling;  the  disciples  are  terrified 
while  Jesus  sleeps  through  the  whole,  and  they  wake 


AV  MORE   SEA.  203 

Him  with  the  cry  "  Lord  save  us  or  we  perish ! " 
And  He  rises  and  looks  over  the  ranges  of  mountain 
billows  and  looks  them  down  into  calm.  The  Lord 
asleep  in  the  ship  and  the  ship  tossing  no  whither ! 
So  it  is  in  our  faithless  piloting  on  the  great  voyage 
of  life,  till  we  call  Him  up  and  He  breaks  through 
our  drowsy  religious  consciousness  and  his  "  Peace, 
be  still,"  goes  out  over  the  tumbling  billows.  What 
a  rebuke  to  the  impatience  and  hurry  and  reck- 
less plunge  through  affairs,  and  the  overweening 
trust  in  our  own  cunning  or  godless  scheming  with 
which  the  business  of  this  world  is  carried  on  so 
largely,  while  the  laws  of  Providence  are  lost  sight 
of,  and  the  Christ  is  asleep  in  the  ship,  and  panic  has 
seized  the  crew,  and  destruction  threatens  the  whole  ! 
And  how  impressively  comes  the  lesson  that  just  in 
the  degree  that  our  turbulence  and  our  convulsive 
strivings  have  ceased,  the  Lord  can  work  in  us  and 
for  us,  and  make  a  smooth  pathway  for  us  over  the 
waves.  Prayer  that  really  brings  God  near  to  us  has 
the  least  in  it  of  impatience  and  importunity.  It 
is  laying  the  command  of  silence  on  all  our  turbu- 
lence ;  it  is  bringing  the  profoundest  Tiush  through 
the  whole  world  within  ;  and  then  the  Divine  foot- 
steps are  drawing  near,  and  a  Divine  form  comes 
walking  upon  the  sea.  Peter,  foolish  and  impulsive 
man,  was  in  a  hurry  to  meet  Christ,  and  in  his  ner- 
vous haste  he  began  to  sink.  There  is  prayer  so 
noisy  and  impetuous,  so  full  of  nervous  fear,  that  it 


204  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

never  rinds  God,  but  on  the  other  hand  sinks  us 
deeper  and  deeper  in  the  bathos  of  our  doubts  and 
passions,  as  if  our  noise  and  our  waves  of  passion 
and  unrest  might  drown  his  voice,  or  surge  between 
us  and  keep  Him  out  of  sight.  And  there  is  prayer 
which  is  too  earnest  even  for  words,  when  we  sink 
into  the  most  perfect  stillness  and  there  is  no  more 
tossing  of  the  deep. 

"  Not  for  Him  our  violence, 

Storming  at  the  gates  of  sense  ; 
His  the  primal  language,  his 
The  eternal  silences." 

I  am  persuaded  that  we  besiege  the  throne  too 
much  with  our  words,  instead  of  trying  to  find  God 
in  the  silence  that  is  "  golden."  We  incur  the 
"  damnation "  of  making  long  prayers.  The  first 
condition  of  finding  the  peace  of  God  is  a  profound 
listening,  after  all  our  personal  wishes  have  become 
speechless.  I  do  not  refer  to  mere  musing  and 
meditation,  which  are  very  apt  to  sink  into  lazy  re- 
pose. I  mean  that  highest  communion  with  God 
which  comes  when  our  selfhood  has  been  distin- 
guished and  rebuked  into  silence,  and  our  unselfish 
being  through  which  the  Lord  speaks,  if  He  speaks 
at  all,  our  moral  sense,  our  aspirations  for  heavenly 
purity,  for  help  in  serving  others,  is  all  the  more 
urgent,  and  receives  the  inarticulate  breathings  of 
the  Spirit.  It  is  shocking  irreverence  to  interrupt 
God  in  his  speech  ;  but  this  we    are   doing  all  the 


NO  MORE  SEA.  205 

while  we  are  piling  up  our  words  towards  heaven. 
I  wish  in  all  our  congregations  there  was  a  place 
for  the  silent  prayer,  and  I  do  not  know  of  a  more 
discouraging  feature  of  our  social  worship,  or  our 
conference  and  prayer-meeting,  than  our  impatience 
of  the  still  intervals,  during  which  somebody,  pro- 
fessedly unprepared,  hastens  to  thump  our  ears  with 
nonsense.  What  we  need  supremely  in  our  daily 
ongoings,  is  not  some  new  and  more  stirring  re- 
creation, but  a  pause  somewhere,  total  and  profound, 
where  the  quiet  from  God  can  reach  us  as  He  walks 
in  the  cool  of  the  day.  Sometimes,  when  your 
words  are  too  poor  for  your  thought  and  emotion, 
the  heart  may  reach  up  and  lay  hold  of  the  Divine 
promises  and  the  Divine  imagery  of  which  the  Bi- 
ble is  full  ;  and  in  that  form  the  soul  may  be  borne 
upward  and  lie  still  at  the  foot  of  the  throne.  It  is 
we  that  make  trouble  by  too  much  noise  and  com- 
motion, stirring  the  sea  within,  that  casts  up  mire 
and  dirt  from  the  bottom. 

II.  But  not  alone  our  ceaseless  unrest  is  here 
imaged  forth  to  us.  The  mystery  of  the  endless 
Beyond  is  here  also.  Did  you  never,  when  a  child, 
stand  on  the  ocean  shore,  and  look  off  and  wonder 
and  speculate  as  Columbus  did,  as  to  what  lay  be- 
yond that  expanse  of  tumbling  and  flashing  waves  ? 
Viewed  from  the  point  of  mere  naturalism,  this 
earth  we  live  on  shrinks  to  a  little  Patmos  of  rocks 
and  caves,  girded  round  by  a  great  sea  of  mystery. 


206  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

And  the  imagination  conjures  up  forms  grotesque 
and  frightful — just  as  Homer  did  when  he  sent 
Ulysses  into  that  boundless  unknown  to  find  the 
giants  and  the  monsters,  and  the  hyperborean  cav- 
ern that  opens  down  into  the  shadows  of  hell,  and 
among  the  pale  spectres  of  departed  heroes.  Or 
where  there  is  no  imagination  to  give  wing  to 
thought,  the  vast  Beyond  is  a  total  blank,  the  re- 
gion of  emptiness  and  of  —  nothing.  How  mys- 
terious is  this  sea,  with  the  everlasting  moan  of  its 
waves,  and  the  wrecks  which  it  holds  in  its  unfath- 
omable deeps !  and  yet,  beyond  its  horizon,  beyond 
the  blue  line  where  the  waves  seem  to  touch  the 
sky,  the  generations  have  disappeared  ;  our  friends 
and  kindred  disappear  every  day,  and  we  gaze  after 
them  into  the  boundless  mystery.  And  what  is  to 
push  back  this  line  of  mystery  till  it  vanishes  alto- 
gether ?  Why,  there  are  two  faculties  slumbering 
in  our  human  nature,  which,  being  touched  by  the 
finger  of  the  Lord,  change  the  whole  scene  till  the 
line  of  mystery  recedes  and  there  is  no  more  sea. 
One  is  the  faculty  of  vision,  and  the  other  is  the 
faculty  of  faith  ;  and  sometimes  one  merges  in  the 
other.  The  beloved  disciple  had  both.  His  faith 
was  the  highest  and  clearest  of  the  twelve,  and 
so  it  opened  into  vision  ;  and  what  his  Lord  de- 
scribed in  figure  and  metaphor,  he  saw  where  the 
figure  and  metaphor  became  the  living  landscapes 
of  the  heavenly  world.     And  then  the  rocky  Patmos 


XO   MORE   SEA.  207 

is  an  island  no  more.  There  is  a  new  heaven  with 
its  own  earth,  its  own  mountains  and  rivers  of  water. 
And  who  are  those  that  walk  beside  them,  in  white 
robes,  reflecting  the  sunshine  of  God  ?  "  These  are 
they  who  come  out  of  great  tribulation  —  who  have 
washed  their  robes  and  made  them  white  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb.'  They  shall  hunger  no  more, 
neither  thirst  any  more,  neither  shall  the  sun  light 
on  them  nor  any  heat,  for  He  that  dwelleth  in  the 
midst  of  the  throne  shall  feed  them  and  lead  them 
to  living  fountains  of  water  and  wipe  away  all  tears 
from  their  eyes."  The  coast  line  has  disappeared. 
This  faculty  of  vision  was  not  peculiar  to  the 
Apostle.  I  suppose  it  to  be  latent  in  every  immortal 
soul,  and  here  and  there  it  has  been  touched  by 
God's  finger,  and  opened,  as  Jesus  touched  the  eyes 
of  the  blind  man  and  made  him  see.  There  were 
such  men  all  through  the  Old  Testament  times, 
and  the  New  Testament  times.  There  were  such 
men  among  the  Greeks  and  among  the  Oriental 
nations.  And  there  was  One  who  had  the  gift  with- 
out measure,  —  without  any  mists  or  clouds  on  his 
horizon ;  for  Jesus  was  "  in  heaven "  and  on  the 
earth  at  the  same  time,  —  so  that  He  might  bring 
down  to  earth,  and  describe  to  men  what  He  saw 
amid  the  eternal  serenities,  where  his  higher  mind 
had  its  dwelling-place.  Therefore  He  says,  "  We 
speak  what  we  know,  and  testify  what  we  have 
seen."     Instead  of  this  faculty  of  vision,  He  touches 


208  SERMOXS  AXD   SOXGS. 

in  us  the  faculty  of  faith,  because  vision  would 
blind  and  dazzle  us.  When  we  do  not  prevent  Him 
by  our  cries  and  our  turbulence,  faith  rises  clear  and 
comprehending,  for  it  has  reason,  and  revelation, 
and  intuition,  and  aspiration,  all  on  its  side  ;  yes,  and 
the  whole  line  of  prophecy  running  through  thou- 
sands of  years.  If  you  demand  certainty,  I  think 
it  is  quite  as  attainable  in  spiritual  things  as  in 
natural.  We  follow  the  inductive  method.  We 
reason  from  the  seen  to  the  unseen ;  from  facts 
carefully  ascertained,  to  the  conclusions  that  come 
from  them.  I  believe  Mr.  Proctor  in  much  that  he 
tells  me  about  the  sun  of  our  firmament  and  those 
larger  suns  that  are  farther  off,  and  which  only  ap- 
pear to  me  as  twinkling  stars.  I  have  never  looked 
through  his  telescope,  but  I  have  faith  in  him  as  a 
careful  observer,  and  in  the  methods  of  the  spec- 
trum analysis  which  reveal  to  us  the  material  which 
other  worlds-  are  composed  of.  But  the  authority 
on  which  rests  our  faith  in  worlds  that  transcend  the 
senses,  I  hold  to  be  just  as  unimpeachable,  and  in 
addition  to  that  authority  we  have  our  own  inward 
beholdings,  and  the  aspirations  of  universal  hu- 
manity. Beside  the  disclosures  from  above  from 
those  whose  vision  reaches  beyond  the  shadows  of 
time,  and  whose  authority  for  what  they  see  is  as 
good  as  Mr.  Proctor's  for  what  he  sees,  are  the  in- 
stinctive perceptions  of  our  progressive  being  every- 
where, and  the   prophesyings  which  rise  out    of  it. 


NO  MORE  SEA.  2CX) 

They  are  disturbances  and  attractions  which  show 
a  spirit-world  in  proximity  with  this,  ere  that  world 
itself  breaks  into  our  field  of  view.  I  submit  to 
you,  then,  that  the  faiths  of  religion  have  the  same 
authentication  as  the  faiths  of  science,  with  confir- 
mations that  science  has  not  ;  because  the  funda- 
mental facts  of  religion  take  in  those  of  natural 
science,  and  include  others  which  are  beyond  its 
range.  The  coast  line  of  mystery  moves  off,  and 
our  little  Patmos  enlarges  till  it  touches  the  borders 
of  Paradise,  or  crosses  over  them. 

III.  But  there  is  a  loneliness  and  solitude  that 
come  from  this  surrounding  sea  of  mystery.  Say 
what  we  will,  we  live  here  on  an  island,  which,  as  our 
days  increase,  shuts  us  in  to  ourselves.  This  whole 
visible  universe  is  fluid  and  fluctuating  ;  a  "  sea  of 
matter "  in  which  endless  forms  rise  and  dissolve 
and  disappear.  The  past  generations  are  the  dust 
we  tread  on  to-day  ;  and  the  dust  we  tread  on  to- 
day, is  to  clothe  new  generations  who  will  build 
upon  our  ashes.  One  half  of  the  northern  conti- 
nents, so  the  scientists  assure  us,  was  an  ice  floe 
some  hundred  thousand  years  since,  which  buried 
extinct  races  of  men  whence  no  tidings  have  come 
to  us,  and  the  awful  cycle  is  moving  round  again. 
I  cannot  repress  a  feeling  of  desolation  in  contem- 
plation of  these  inter-glacial  generations  who  know 
nothing  of  each  other  ;  or  of  the  buried  races  of 
humanity,  once  warm  with  the  fevered  life  that 
14 


2IO  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

courses  through  our  veins,  but  whose  dust  now 
makes  up  the  soil  we  tread  and  the  trees  and  flow- 
ers that  grow  out  of  it.  How  small  is  the  island  we 
occupy  in  the  great  ocean  of  universal  being !  The 
whole  field  of  authentic  history  is  comparatively  a 
very  narrow  space,  girt  round  by  an  interminable  sea 
which  swallows  up  the  generations  in  an  oblivion  no 
earthly  knowledge  can  disturb. 

And  with  the  generation  to  which  we  ourselves 
belong,  the  sphere  of  our  kindred  ties  and  personal 
relations  keeps  narrowing  in  till  we  stand  on  one  of 
the  solitary  peaks,  a  lone  rock  in  the  ocean,  with  the 
hungry  sea  all  around  it.  We  start  in  life  young 
and  joyous,  clasping  hands  with  a  great  company  ; 
we  move  on  together  and  the  company  grows  less 
and  less  ;  our  hands  are  unclasped  one  after  an- 
other ;  they  on  the  other  shore  are  more  than  they 
upon  this,  and  the  solitude  grows  deeper  and  deeper 
till  there  is  one  man  who  stands  alone  with  all  his 
generation  gone.  How  solitary  the  condition  of  the 
old  man  we  read  of  lately,  who  had  passed  his  hun- 
dred and  thirtieth  year  and  sat  sighing  day  after 
day,  because  he  feared  Death  had  forgotten  him  and 
left  him  companionless  in  the  wide  world  !  The 
insulation  narrows  down  even  to  a  single  spot  that 
juts  up  in  the  great  sea  of  being.  And  why  do  our 
friends  disappear  from  us  till  we  stand  alone  ?  Be- 
cause, among  other  reasons,  God  can  never  speak  to 
us  in  a  great  company  as  he  can  when  he  finds  us 


NO  MORE  SEA.  211 

in  solitude.  Did  you  never,  when  you  had  an  im- 
portant message  to  a  friend,  call  him  aside,  take  him 
out  of  the  crowd  and  whisper  it  low  in  his  ear  ? 
Precisely  so  it  is  that  the  Lord  deals  with  us  when 
He  comes  with  his  weightiest  and  most  confidential 
message.  There  are  things  which  He  tells  us  in  the 
crowds  where  sympathizing  hearts  beat  in  concert, 
and  a  multitude  of  voices  blend  in  one.  There  are 
other  and  deeper  things  which  He  tells  us  when 
He  isolates  us,  draws  us  up  into  his  confidence, 
and  whispers  to  us  what  no  mortal  must  overhear. 
There  was  one  man  who  trod  the  earth  supremely 
alone,  —  alone  in  the  crowds,  alone  in  the  desert,  and 
alone  on  the  mountains,  —  for  what  depths  of  space 
lay  between  Jesus  and  all  the  people  about  Him ! 
And  yet  through  the  doors  of  his  solitude  what  com- 
pany came !  the  Father  in  sweetest  and  tenderest 
fellowship,  troops  of  angels,  the  spirits  of  just  men 
made  perfect.  But  He  did  not  stay  on  those  heights 
and  in  that  blest  society.  He  descended  from  them 
and  brought  among  the  crowds  and  into  all  the  ac- 
tivities of  the  world,  the  spirit  which  came  from  the 
baptism  of  solitude,  and  followed  him  like  a  halo 
along  his  path.  And  that  is  the  way  He  deals  with 
us.  The  more  complete  my  isolation,  the  more  pro- 
found should  be  my  listening,  assured  that  the  Di- 
vine lips  are  close  to  my  ears  with  a  message.  And 
this  is  just  the  way  the  great  and  the  good  who  have 
attained   the  most  have  left   behind    the  superficial 


212  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

culture,  and  the  mere  echoes  back  and  forth  which 
come  from  the  crowds,  and  ascended  the  heights  of 
an  individual  faith  on  which  the  peace  of  God  rests 
forever.  Though  not  the  vision  of  Patmos,  yet  the 
faith  which  carries  its  divine  scenery  in  the  soul  and 
makes  us  strong  for  duty  and  abolishes  death,  is 
there.  The  narrow  bounds  of  our  little  island  re- 
cede away,  and  away,  till  at  death  they  disappear 
altogether,  and  then  —  there  is  no  more  sea. 

The  sea  of  unrest,  the  sea  of  mystery,  and  the  sea 
of  separation,  are  to  disappear  in  the  Apocalypse  of 
God.  But  let  me  not  speak  without  qualification  and 
reserve.  Unrest  and  mystery  and  separation  there 
must  always  be,  though  I  trust  all  that  embitters 
them  here  may  be  left  behind.  There  is  the  unrest 
of  the  soul  which  is  always  athirst  for  higher  things, 
for  enlarging  and  more  sufficing  knowledge,  and  for 
deeper  draughts  of  the  River  of  Life.  It  is  the  un- 
rest that  keeps  us  from  moral  indolence  and  the 
sleep  of  spiritual  death.  It  is  the  earnest  of  all  our 
higher  attainment,  but  without  the  fever  of  our  con- 
suming cares.  There  is  the  line  of  an  ever-receding 
mystery  as  the  domain  of  knowledge  enlarges.  As 
the  day  gains  upon  the  twilight,  the  twilight  shoots 
faint  rays  into  the  total  darkness  and  makes  a  new 
twilight  to  be  explored.  But  total  darkness  there 
must  always  be  except  to  Him  who  inhabits  eternity 
and  fills  infinity  with  his  presence.    But  the  mystery 


NO  MORE  SEA.  213 

will  no  longer  torment  the  soul  with  the  cruel  doubt 
and  despair  that  becloud  the  face  of  God,  and  shut 
out  his  paradise  from  view.  Faith  will  never  be  lost 
in  sight  ;  for  however  high  the  heaven  we  attain, 
there  will  be  a  yet  higher  one  for  faith  to  apprehend 
and  for  the  soul  to  reach  after.  The  sea  of  mystery 
will  only  recede  and  lie  on  a  remoter  horizon.  Insu- 
lation there  must  always  be,  for  there  can  be  no  meet- 
ing and  recognition  of  the  friends  who  have  gone 
before  into  whose  society  our  individualism  shall  be 
altogether  merged,  or  which  shall  keep  us  from  those 
serene  and  solitary  heights  where  God  meets  us 
betimes  alone  and  takes  us  up  into  his  eternal  refuge. 
Unless  we  are  to  go  up  to  these  mountain  peaks  and 
drink  there  the  purer  ethers,  society,  though  of  the 
angels  themselves,  would  cease  to  be  a  mutual  excite- 
ment to  higher  things.  We  must  dwell  sometimes 
apart  or  we  cannot  dwell  with  others,  though  it  be  in 
heaven  itself,  with  that  giving  and  receiving  which 
insure  to  society  a  progressive  life  and  joy. 

The  voice  of  the  celestial  multitudes,  then,  could  it 
fall  down  upon  us  and  become  audible,  would  come 
in  words  of  cheer.  It  would  tell  us  that  the  Divine 
dispensations  are  the  same  for  earth  and  heaven. 
The  strengthening  angel  from  among  them  would  be 
the  angel  of  Patience,  and  his  message  would  be, 
"We  have  not  only  passed  through  the  same  that 
you  have,  but  we  are  passing  still.  Unrest  and  Mys- 
tery and  Insulation  are  with  us  as  with  you.     They 


214  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

are  the  Divine  ministries  by  which  you  are  to  come 
up  hither,  and  by  which,  after  you  have  joined  us  here, 
we  are  still  to  journey  on  forever.  Be  guided  and 
purified  by  these  ministries  as  we  have  been ;  be 
with  us  in  spirit  even  now,  and  then  for  the  unrest 
in  its  corroding  anxieties,  for  the  mystery  that  im- 
prisons within  the  coast-line  of  storm  and  darkness, 
and  for  the  insulation  of  loneliness  and  desertion  — 

THERE    IS    NO    MORE    SEA." 


PARTED. 

A.    M.    M. 

How  dread  the  silence  !  —  on  the  shore 
We  stand  and  shout  in  vain  ! 

The  voice  that  cheered  us  once,  no  more 
Will  answer  back  again. 

If  sainted  ones  their  memories  keep, 
And  love's  most  sacred  vow, 

Why  yawns  the  gulf  so  wide  and  deep 
That  parts  them  from  us  now  ? 

Methinks  the  silence  speaks,  "  My  share 

Of  griefs  and  conflicts  o'er, 
Why  should  the  waves  of  mortal  care 

Break  on  the  heavenly  shore  ? 

"  In  all  the  works  that  I  have  done, 
My  spirit  pleads  with  thee  ; 
Go  finish  what  my  hand  begun, 
Then  come  and  reign  with  me. 

"  Another  Hand  with  touch  divine, 
Knocks  softly  at  thy  door  ; 
A  voice  of  deeper  tone  than  mine 
Pleads  with  thee  evermore. 

"  And  in  its  sure  prophetic  tone 
It  tells  of  things  to  be, 
When  to  the  heart  bereft  and  lone, 
There  shall  be  no  more  sea." 


NOT  LOST  BUT  RISEN. 

M.    L.    P. 

We  would  not  call  thee  back  "  —  so  let  them  say, — 
What  the  lips  speak  the  bleeding  heart  denies  ; 

My  voice,  dear  friend,  should  call  thee  back  to-day, 
Could  it  but  reach  thy  dwelling  in  the  skies. 

For  we  have  need  of  thee  :  thy  radiant  smile 
Lay  like  a  sunbeam  on  this  scene  of  care, 

And  wear}-  burdens  at  thy  touch  erewhile 

Were  changed  to  burdens  light  as  summer  air. 

Thy  pupils  need  thee  :  for  thy  careful  hand 

Removed  the  thorns  and  scattered  fragrant  flowers, 

And  their  young  minds  beneath  thy  clear  command 
Woke  into  conscious  life  their  noblest  powers. 

Thou  needest  us,  dear  friend  :  through  pathways  bright 
Far,  far  away  from  us  thy  feet  have  roved  : 

But  thy  new  friends  among  the  sons  of  Light 
Can  never  love  thee  more  than  we  have  loved. 

Soul  to  its  place,  dust  to  its  kindred  dust ! 

Such  is  the  law  and  we  will  not  complain, 
But  ever  clear  of  Time's  corroding  rust, 

Thy  love  we  cherish  till  we  meet  again. 

For  through  the  parting  veil  we  see  thee  now, 
In  thv  fair  clime,  with  faith's  unclouded  eve, 


NOT  LOST  BUT  RISEX.  21 7 

See  thee  with  every  "charm  of  mind  and  brow 
Baptized  anew  in  immortality." 

And  thou  art  risen,  another,  yet  the  same, 
Nor  have  we  lost  thee  in  thy  heavenly  birth  ; 

The  woman  there  who  takes  an  angel's  name 
Is  still  the  friend  that  we  have  loved  on  earth. 


XIV. 

TFIE    CHRISTIAN   CHURCH    AS    A   MEANS   OF 
PROGRESS. 

Matthew  xvi.  18.     On  this  rock  will  I  build  my  church,  and 
the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it. 

r  I  ^HIS  text,  perhaps,  has  been  the  occasion  of 
-*-  more  persistent  controversy  than  any'  other 
passage  in  the  New  Testament ;  and  vast  systems  of 
church  government  are  supposed  to  be  based  on  its 
authority  ;  and  yet,  when  we  clear  the  text  of  some 
obscurity,  partly  through  false  rendering,  the  mean- 
ing seems  exceedingly  simple  and  plain.  The  origi- 
nal word  here  rendered  "  hell  "  is  not  the  one  which 
describes  the  retribution  after  death.  It  is  "  hades," 
which  means  the  realm  of  departed  spirits  gener- 
ally, without  any  reference  to  their  condition.  Ren- 
dered into  modern  language  we  should  read,  —  the 
gates  of  the  spirit-world.  This,  in  language  which 
drops  the  figure  entirely,  is  simply  death  ;  for 
death  is  the  gate,  or  entrance,  to  the  spirit-world. 
Our  Saviour's  declaration,  then,  is  simply  and 
clearly   this,    My    Church    shall   be    built    on    such 


220  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

foundations,  thai  it  shall  never  die  out.  It  shall 
continue  from  age  to  age,  and  never  fail  from  the 
midst  of  men. 

How  wonderfully  have  these  words  been  fulfilled  ! 
States  and  empires,  and  human  institutions  of  all 
kinds,  have  risen  and  fallen,  while  the  Church  re- 
mains ;  and  though  its  enemies  have  kept  predict- 
ing its  downfall,  or  its  waning  and  vanishing  life,  it 
has  lived  on  with  cumulative  power,  sometimes  mak- 
ing a  conquest  of  these  enemies  themselves,  and 
drawing  them  over  to  its  side ;  and  its  increase  and 
influence  were  never  greater  or  more  pervasive  than 
to-day.  Its  form,  its  methods,  and  its  temper  have 
changed,  and  will  continue  to  change.  Its  founda- 
tion and  its  innermost  essence  and  substance  are 
ever  the  same. 

For  what  is  the  foundation,  the  "  Rock,"  on 
which  the  Church  of  Christ  is  built,  so  strong  that 
the  waves  of  time  beat  against  it  in  vain  ?  A  very 
few  words  of  exposition  will  serve  to  show.  In 
one  of  those  hours  of  clearer  and  higher  enlighten- 
ment among  his  disciples,  Jesus  asks  what  the  peo- 
ple are  saying  about  Him,  and  how  they  themselves 
regard  Him.  The  people,  say  his  disciples,  rank 
Him  among  the  prophets.  "  But  whom  say  ye 
that  I  am  ? "  Peter,  whose  name  literally  rendered 
is  Rock,  replies  at  once,  "Thou  art  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  the  living  God."  On  this  confession 
of   the  Christ,  Jesus    replies,    "  Thou  art    Rock  in- 


THE   CHURCH  AS  A   MEANS  OF  PROGRESS.     221 

deed,  and  on  such  a  rock,  that  is,  such  a  confession 
of  me,  I  will  build  my  Church,  and  so  constituted 
it  will  never  die  out."  That  is  to  say,  —  such  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  Christ  will  be  the  foundation 
of  the  Church  in  all  ages.  He  is  such  a  want  of  all 
humanity  as  the  ground  of  faith  in  spiritual  things, 
that  this  confession  of  Him  will  continue  to  the 
end  of  time.  The  Church  so  founded  —  this  is  the 
meaning  —  shall  be  such  a  necessity  in  the  world's 
affairs,  shall  have  such  adaptation  to  the  deeper 
wants  of  the  soul,  that  it  shall  never  decay. 

In  unfolding  this  subject,  we  will  first  lay  off  and 
leave  behind  us  some  false  or  partial  conceptions 
about  the  Church,  and  then  come  to  the  essential 
Church  idea,  and  show  why  it  lives  on  forever,  as 
one  of  the  necessary  means  of  human  progress. 

The  idea  which  some  people  have  of  it  seems  to 
be,  that  its  main  object  is  to  celebrate  the  death 
of  a  Jewish  prophet  and  reformer  who  suffered 
martyrdom  eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  This, 
with  a  profession  of  discipleship,  constitutes  a 
church.  By  and  by,  however,  the  question  occurs, 
Why  should  we  keep  celebrating  the  death  of  one 
martyr,  or  one  prophet,  especially  one  who  lived  so 
long  ago,  when  many  since  have  taught  and  died 
for  their  race,  —  men  of  illustrious  virtue  and  sub- 
lime self-sacrifice  ?  No  valid  or  sufficient  reason 
can  be  given.  And  so  in  some  congregations  the 
Church  idea  fades  out  almost  entirely,  and  its  rites 


222  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

become  meaningless.  Unbelievers  make  their  as- 
saults upon  it  ;  but  always  you  will  observe  their 
blows  are  directed  against  this  empty  shadow, 
while  they  have  never  even  caught  sight  of  the 
substance  itself. 

Again,  there  are  diverse  forms  and  methods,  each 
claiming  to  belong  to  the  true  Church,  and  to  be 
essential  thereto.  Who  is  to  decide  which  is  right  ? 
The  question  is  often  asked,  as  if  the  essential 
Church  of  Christ  were  a  lo,  here  !  or  a  lo,  there ! 
as  if  any  fixed  form  were  indispensable,  and  not 
rather  the  spirit  and  substance  whose  form  can 
change  according  to  the  life  within,  in  adaptation 
to  the  wants  of  the  age  or  the  condition  of  men. 
Moreover,  all  that  is  said  about  the  corruption  of 
the  Church  pertains  not  to  the  essential  Church 
idea  itself,  but  to  human  weakness  and  depravity 
as  obstacles  in  the  way  of  its  complete  realiza- 
tion. 

I.  Coming  to  the  heart  of  our  subject,  we  say, 
first,  that  the  essential  idea  of  a  Church  is  that 
of  a  Divine  Person,  around  which  it  may  be  gath- 
ered and  organized.  Abstract  ideas  may  organize 
a  school  of  philosophy.  A  Church  requires  a  su- 
preme and  living  Head.  And  a  Christian  Church 
has  for  its  Head  the  living  Christ  ;  not  a  dead  Christ 
who  was  buried  centuries  ago,  but  who  is  the  Me- 
diator to-day  ;  in  whom  the  soul  has  access  to  the 
Infinite  Father,  and  a   personal  and   conscious   ex- 


ME   CHURCH  AS  A   MEANS  OF  PROGRESS.     223 

perience  of  his  abounding  love.  It  is  the  Christ 
risen  and  glorified,  and  therefore  nearer  the  mind 
and  heart  of  the  believer  than  he  ever  could  be  in 
the  flesh.  Again  and  again  Jesus  avows  such 
inexistence  of  the  Father  and  the  Son,  that  to 
lose  the  Son  is  to  lose  the  Father,  while  to  know 
the  Son  is  to  know  God  with  a  knowledge  so  in- 
timate that  it  is  like  seeing  Him  openly.  And 
this  mediation  of  Christ  was  not  limited  within  the 
thirty-three  years  of  his  sojourn  in  the  flesh.  Rather 
his  incarnation  was  the  preparation  for  a  mediation 
more  complete  in  behalf  of  all  humanity  till  the 
end  of  time.  "  Lo  !  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  to 
the  end  of  the  world."  "  It  is  expedient  for  you 
that  I  go  away,  for  if  I  go  not  away  the  Comforter 
will  not  come."  He  means  evidently,  that  from 
the  risen  and  glorified  state,  the  Holy  Spirit  was  to 
come  through  his  mediation  as  never  before.  The 
Christ,  on  the  spiritual  side,  was  to  be  so  marvel- 
ously  nigh,  as  to  bring  the  disciple  into  relations 
with  Him,  and  through  Him  with  the  Father,  more 
intimate  and  tender  than  they  had  ever  conceived. 
"  I  in  them,  and  thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be  made 
perfect  in  one,  that  the  world  may  believe  that  thou 
hast  sent  me." 

If  any  one  supposes  that  this  language  is  that  of 
metaphor,  and  as  such  is  to  be  explained  away,  he 
has  only  to  turn  the  pages  of  subsequent  history 
to  learn  his  mistake,  and  to  find  a  full  commentary 


224  "        SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

upon  the    Saviours  words.     It  is  a  fact   of  church 
history  more  conspicuous  than  any  other,  that  the 
presence  and    mediation    of    Christ,  and   fellowship 
with    Him  was  altogether   more   plenary    and    sun- 
bright  after   his  ascension    than   before  ;  that   men 
who   had   never    seen    Him    in    the   flesh,   felt   his 
power  to  mould  their  natures  anew,  and  give  them 
a  profound  consciousness  of    the  pardoning  mercy. 
"  But  that  was  a  great  while  ago,  and  before  the  first 
enthusiasm   had   begun    to   wane."      He  who  says 
this  knows  little  of  the  course  of  Christian  history  ; 
of   the   deeper   and    deeper  channels    it   makes   for 
itself,  and  is  making  to-day.     Not  by    open  vision, 
like  that  of  Paul  and  John,  but  by  the  deepest  and 
warmest  intuitions  of  believing  souls,  this  same  con- 
sciousness  of    the    mediating  Christ    in    the  midst 
of  his  Church  gives  it  power  and  conquest  now,  and 
is  fulfilling   the    Saviour's    prediction,    "  Lo !    I    am 
with  you  alway."     Those  who    say  the  most  about 
the  shortcomings   and  corruptions    of   the    Church, 
and  with  too  much  truth,  do  not  seem  to  be  aware 
that  they  are  urging  a   most  weighty  argument  in 
behalf  of  its  living   Head,  and  the  duty  of  gather- 
ing  in    nearer  and   more   trustful  relations    around 
Him.     The  corruption,  the   errors,  the  cruelties    of 
men  !  what  thick  and  baleful  clouds  has  He  melted 
through,  and  melted  away,  and  cleared  off  from  his 
path,  as  He  comes  down  through   the  ages  !     The 
sins  and  wrongs   and   misconceptions   which   gath- 


THE  CHURCH  AS  A    MEANS  OF  PROGRESS.     225 

ered  before  Him,  measure  somewhat  the  aggres- 
sive power  of  his  truth  and  grace,  in  making  a 
way  through  them  for  the  New  Jerusalem  to  de- 
scend and  be  the  tabernacle  of  God  with  men. 
All  this  He  foresaw  in  the  long  perspective,  and 
foretold.  False  and  persecuting  religions  were  to 
take  his  name,  and  profane  his  truth,  only  to  be 
cleared  off  by  its  power  as  his  own  church  de- 
scended and  prevailed,  enrobed  with  heavenly  char- 
ities and  beloved  as  a  bride.  The  thickness  and 
the  blackness  of  the  clouds  that  gather  about  the 
rising  sun,  and  put  bars  in  his  way,  illustrate  his 
power  in  breaking  through  them,  and  finally  clearing 
them  out  of  sight  in  the  warm  glories  of  the  noon- 
tide. 

God  in  his  infinite  essence  can  be  approached  by 
no  finite  being.  He  cannot  come  to  us  by  moving 
his  own  substance  into  us,  for  that  would  abolish  our 
own  personality.  He  comes  to  us  by  forthgoings  out 
of  his  own  essential  being,  and  this  gives  us  life  and 
salvation  through  the  medium  which  makes  tender 
adaptations  to  our  condition.  Nature  is  such  media- 
tion ;  the  angel  world  is  yet  another.  But  the  one 
perfect  and  all-sufficing  is  a  Perfected  Humanity, 
through  which  the  full  supply  stands  over  against 
every  want  of  the  human  heart,  and  through  which 
the  Father  reveals  Himself  in  those  human  qualities 
which  He  could  transcribe  into  our  finite  natures  to 
bring  us  into  correspondency  and  communion  with 
15 


226  SERMONS  AXD  SONGS. 

Himself.  In  declaiming  against  the  Divine  Person- 
ality, there  are  some  who  forget  that  if  man  in  his 
most  perfect  state  is  in  the  image  of  God,  God  must 
be  in  the  image  of  man,  and  that  they  are  trying  to 
divest  Him  of  every  attribute  of  Divine  Fatherhood, 
till  faith  has  been  emptied  of  all  its  contents  and  be- 
come a  vanishing  shade.  Christ  is  "  the  image  of  the 
invisible  God,"  "  the  first-born  of  the  whole  creation," 
in  whom  dwelleth  "  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bod- 
ily." And  as  such  He  is  the  central  Life  around 
which  his  Church  is  gathered  and  organized,  and 
through  whom  the  Divine  Love  flows  forever. 

II.  Given  a  Divine  Person  around  whom  we  can  be 
organized  in  the  bonds  of  discipleship,  and  in  whose 
mediation  our  communion  with  God  is  full  and  free, 
the  idea  of  fellozvsJiip  can  have  its  complete  realiza- 
tion,—  that  interior  fellowship  of  heart  with  heart 
and  mind  with  mind  which  makes  the  ties  of  brother- 
hood something  more  than  a  theory  and  a  name.  It 
is  that  brotherhood  of  souls  in  which  the  weakness 
of  each  is  supplied  by  the  strength  of  all,  in  which 
our  individual  one-sidedness  is  complemented  by  the 
all-sidedness  of  the  whole,  in  which  the  wants  of  the 
heart  are  supplied  by  a  common  and  abounding  love. 
There  is  the  good-fellowship  of  the  world  which 
knows  men  only  as  social  beings,  as  inhabitants  of  the 
earth  in  the  enjoyment  of  its  pleasures  and  friend- 
ships ;  church  fellowship  involves  the  idea  of  human 
beings  as  immortal  and  spiritual,  with  deeper  wants 


THE   CHURCH  AS  A    MEANS  OF  PROGRESS.     227 

and  yearnings,  and  capacities  for  higher  pleasures 
and  satisfactions  than  the  world  knows  of,  and  deeper 
need  than  it  can  supply.  The  Church  of  Christ, 
therefore,  truly  such,  is  a  home  for  the  soul  where 
kindred  souls  are  to  be  met,  and  where  the  great 
Friend  of  all  souls  abides  in  spirit,  flows  into  all 
hearts  and  draws  them  together.  Here  it  is  that  all 
artificial  distinctions  are  prostrate,  and  every  heart 
can  open  to  every  other  heart  for  counsel  and  guid- 
ance. Here  it  is  that  the  hunger  of  the  soul  for 
human  and  Divine  love  has  had  its  richest  supplies 
and  satisfactions  ;  here  it  is  that  the  weary  burdens 
of  this  world  have  been  made  light  in  a  common 
sympathy ;  here  it  is  that  its  temptations  have  been 
disarmed ;  and  here  it  is  that  the  soul  has  found  the 
opening  gateway  of  death  not  a  lonely  and  dreary 
passage,  but  has  entered  it  amid  loving  farewells.  If 
you  doubt  it,  read  the  interior  history  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  —  not  its  ecclesiastical  annals,  —  and 
you  will  find  that  the  Christian  communions  have 
been  the  illumined  summits  where  heaven  and  earth 
have  met  together,  and  the  promise,  "  Lo,  I  am 
with  you  alway,"  has  had  its  continuous  fulfillment. 
Music  and  song  here  touch  the  deeper  chords  of 
sympathy,  —  those  which  chime  with  the  songs  of 
victory  before  the  throne,  that  almost  become  audi- 
ble, and  render  the  Church  on  earth  and  the  Church 
in  heaven  but  one  communion. 

III.  All  this  being  given,  the  Church  aggressive 


228  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

and  militant^  and  arrayed  against  the  evils  and  unbe- 
liefs of  the  world,  is  sure  to  appear.  The  disciple  of 
Christ  does  not  seek  a  home-centre  of  the  heart  for 
selfish  ease  and  repose,  nor  for  the  mere  luxury  of  fel- 
lowship. He  is  there  invigorated  and  furnished  for 
the  work  of  conquest,  not  only  over  the  evil  in  him- 
self, but  over  the  evil  in  society.  Fighting  in  our  own 
name  and  with  our  own  weapons,  we  become  swollen 
with  conceit  and  self-assertion,  or  we  relapse  into 
cowardice.  When  you  have  the  whole  brotherhood 
behind  you,  and  the  Christ  in  the  midst  of  them  all 
and  inspiring  them  all,  your  personality  is  as  nothing, 
but  the  spirit  that  breathes  through  the  whole  supplies 
your  weakness  and  bears  you  along  with  it.  What 
would  you  be,  or  what  could  you  do  in  the  business 
of  life,  if  you  had  not  a  home  to  go  back  to  betimes 
and  to  start  from  anew  ?  And  how  much  more  elastic 
your  step,  and  how  much  ^  surer  your  aim,  when  you 
know  that  the  sympathies  and  thoughts  of  kindred 
go  with  you,  and  are  ready  always  to  give  you  a  wel- 
come home  !  But  the  Christian  Church  in  the  su- 
preme sense  is  the  home  of  the  soul ;  for  there  the 
brotherhood  of  souls  is  organized  in  the  name  of 
Christ,  and  there  He  comes  with  the  inheritance  of 
his  Spirit  to  keep  the  way  ever  open  between  earth 
and  heaven.  Home  is  the  basis  of  all  our  best  ac- 
tivities ;  and  this  is  just  as  true  in  the  higher  sense 
of  the  great  Christian  family  as  it  is  in  the  lower  and 
narrower  sense  of  our  private  families  and  affairs.    It 


THE  CHURCH  AS  A   MEANS  OF  PROGRESS.     22g 

is  a  place  to  go  from  as  well  as  a  place  of  retreat 
when  wearied  with  work.  You  come  back  to  it  that 
the  heart  and  the  mind  may  be  replenished  for  new 
forthgoings  and  conquests.  There  is  no  missionary 
spirit  unless  there  is  a  Church  to  kindle  its  fires  and 
keep  them  bright  and  burning.  All  the  great  re- 
forms originate  in  the  Church,  and  go  from  it  di- 
rectly or  indirectly.  Even  those  reformers  who  have 
repudiated  the  Church  and  denounced  her  for  her 
short-comings,  would  be  only  empty  declaimers  did 
they  not  draw  from  the  armory  of  Divine  truth  which 
,the  Church  preserves  and  transmits  to  the  ages.  For 
if  you  lose  the  doctrine  of  a  Divine  Fatherhood  and 
the  doctrine  of  human  brotherhood  in  Christ,  who 
claims  every  child  of  God,  not  for  this  world  alone, 
but  for  an  endless  life,  reform  sinks  into  measures  of 
mere  temporal  expediency  ;  it  is  a  mere  plea  for  crea- 
ture comforts,  or  the  battle-cry  of  political  parties, 
and  has  not  the  sanctions  of  the  Eternal  Justice. 
What  are  the  rights  of  man  as  a  sharer  only  of  the 
good  of  this  world  compared  with  those  which  inhere 
in  his  nature  as  an  heir  of  immortality  ?  That  the 
Church  has  failed  sometimes  to  apply  faithfully  the 
great  truths  committed  to  her  keeping,  that  she  has 
failed  even  to  understand  them  in  all  their  just  rela- 
tions, is  only  saying  that  her  members  are  finite  and 
human  ;  that  there  is  One  in  the  midst  of  her  greater 
than  she  is,  drawing  her  up  nearer  and  nearer  towards 
the  heavenly  ideals,  and  prophesying  through  endless 


230  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

time  to  guide  the  nations  to  their  goal.  And  by  a 
law  as  sure  as  the  law  of  gravitation,  illustrated  by 
the  facts  of  history,  when  men  get  away  from  the 
Christian  Church  and  the  records  and  treasures  of 
truth  of  which  she  is  the  guardian,  and  which  she 
brings  down  through  the  centuries,  they  lose  any  such 
clear  and  vital  conception  of  God  and  humanity  and 
the  relations  between  them,  and  the  relation  of  man  to 
an  endless  future,  as  clothes  him  in  angelic  dignity, 
or  makes  him  anything  more  than  a  higher  developed 
animal  to  perish  with  the  brute  natures  of  which  he 
is  kith  and  kin.  The  grand  truths  which  make  man. 
worth  dying  for,  which  make  the  sacrifice  on  Calvary, 
and  the  martyrdoms  on  all  the  high  places  of  the 
earth  no  waste  of  blood,  but  sweet  and  beautiful  of- 
ferings for  human  salvation,  —  these  truths,  if  not 
lost,  get  exceedingly  blurred  and  out  of  sight  except 
as  the  Christian  Church  guards  them,  preaches  them, 
applies  them,  and  transmits  them  to  after  ages  as 
the  inheritance  from  a  Divine  Mediator. 

IV.  "  The  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against 
it  ; "  that  is  to  say,  it  will  never  die  out  of  the  world. 
It  is  eighteen  hundred  years  since  these  words  were 
spoken,  and  I  want  now  to  glance  one  moment  at 
the  signs  of  their  fulfillment  to-day.  I  see  it  stated 
on  careful  authority,  that  the  ratio  of  increase  among 
the  churches  who  acknowledge  most  fully  the  divin- 
ity and  mediatorial  nature  of  Christ  is  far  in  advance 
of  the  increase  of  population  ;  while  religious  bodies 


THE  CHURCH  AS  A  MEANS  OF  PROGRESS.     23 1 

which  have  not  this  foundation,  have  no  such  in- 
crease, but  either  dwindle  or  fade  out  of  existence. 
Their  ratio  of  increase  falls  vastly  behind  that  of  the 
population,  and  points  to  their  final  extinction  in  the 
progress  of  society.  This  is  a  fact  of  the  highest 
significance,  and  it  disposes  at  once  of  all  the  decla- 
mation we  hear  about  "  the  advanced  ideas "  that 
are  to  supersede  the  organized  Christianity  of  to- 
day. The  organized  Christianity  grows  strong  and 
pervasive  where  the  living  Christ  is  its  central  power 
and  influence  ;  where  He  is  left  out,  the  fires  flicker 
and  die.  But  there  is  another  fact  still  more  auspi- 
cious. Mere  increase  of  numbers  is  not  always  a 
sign  of  real  progress.  Increase  of  spiritual  power 
certainly  is  ;  the  life  that  inspires  the  charities  and 
humanities  that  overrun  the  lines  of  sect,  and  make 
all  the  denominations  only  the  divisions  of  one  army 
of  the  living  God,  waging  battle,  not  against  each 
other,  but  against  sin  and  unbelief,  and  all  that  hin- 
ders the  complete  coming  of  Christ  into  the  world 
to  redeem  and  save  it.  These  are  signs  of  prog- 
ress, and  they  never  shone  brighter  than  now.  The 
kingdom  of  Christ  is  not  merely  aggressive  without 
—  it  comes  within.  It  is  melting  out  the  sectarian 
hardness  and  exclusiveness  that  keep  Christians 
apart,  and  is  drawing  them  together  in  one  great 
catholicity.  It  is  the  New  Jerusalem  descending 
from  God  out  of  heaven  these  eighteen  hundred 
years,  and  now  touching  the  earth  as  never  before. 


232  SERMOXS  AXD  SONGS. 

It  is  not  the  conquest  of  one  denomination  over  the 
rest,  but  Christ  coming  among  all  through  an  interior 
way,  and  bringing  our  partial  theologies  into  more 
genial  conformity  with  his  own  absolute  Christianity. 
These  are  the  real  tokens  of  progress  within  and 
without,  and  they  fill  the  earth  with  the  signs  of  a 
redeemed  and  advancing  humanity.  Not  that  any 
denomination  has  reached  the  absolute  truth  as  it  is 
in  the  mind  of  its  Author.  But  it  is  characteristic 
of  the  New  Era,  that  the  denominations  start  from 
their  agreements,  not  their  divisions  ;  from  Christ  as 
the  luminous  centre,  and  thereby  come  into  the  cur- 
rents of  that  new  fellowship  of  the  Spirit  which 
takes  the  old  hardness  out  of  them  and  clothes  them 
in  the  comprehending  charities  of  the  Gospel. 

Such  are  the  signs  of  the  continuous  fulfillment  of 
the  prophetic  words,  "  The  gates  of  death  will  not 
prevail  against  it."  I  wish  they  could  have  a  con- 
tinuous fulfillment  now  and  here.  If  you  would  make 
this  church  an  organized  and  increasing  power  in  this 
community,  you,  my  Christian  friends,  brothers  and 
sisters,  must  do  something:  more  than  sit  still  and 
look  on  from  the  outside.  You  must  come  into  it  ; 
breathe  your  souls  into  its  fellowship,  and  assume 
your  responsibilities  as  Christian  disciples.  The 
Christian  Church,  however,  can  do  without  you  ;  you 
cannot  do  well  without  it.  I  doubt  if  without  it  Chris- 
tianity can  be  a  completely  transforming  power  in  your 
own  hearts  and  homes.    A  confession  of  Christ  I  be- 


THE    CHURCH  AS  A   MEANS  OF  PROGRESS.     233 

lieve  to  be  a  prime  condition  of  a  full  reception  of 
Him  ;  for  our  beliefs,  which  are  only  abstract  and  spec- 
ulative, become  indistinct  and  vanishing  ;  they  are 
living  and  operative  when  we  put  them  into  our  life 
before  the  world.  "  Whosoever,"  He  says,  "  shall 
confess  me  before  men,  him  will  I  also  confess  be- 
fore my  Father  which  is  in  heaven  ;  but  whosoever 
shall  deny  me  before  men,  him  will  I  also  deny  be- 
fore my  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  What  a  pro- 
found truth  we  have  here  verified  in  the  history  and 
experience  of  to-day  !  To  confess  Christ  heartily  and 
practically  is  to  come  into  a  living  and  blissful  ap- 
prehension of  the  Divine  Fatherhood.  To  deny  the 
Christ  is  to  have  the  Divine  Fatherhood  obscured, 
and  even  the  whole  Divine  Personality  lost,  or 
merged  in  the  dumb  forces  of  Nature.  The  word 
Father  stands  no  longer  for  a  conscious  Divine  In- 
telligence, and  then  the  heavens  over  us  are  black 
as  night,  and  man  is  an  orphan.  A  confession  of 
Christ  brings  you  not  only  into  new  personal  relations 
with  the  Father,  but  into  such  new  relations  with 
the  whole  Christian  brotherhood  in  earth  and  heaven 
that  the  Divine  life  which  throbs  through  it  shall  be 
yours  also.  For  in  this  matter  of  Divine  and  Chris- 
tian fellowship,  we  must  give  if  we  would  receive  ; 
and  if  we  will  not  give  any,  we  must  freeze  in  our 
isolation.  He  that  saves  his  life  loses  it  ;  he  that 
gives  it  out  freely,  makes  it  abound  even  to  the  life 
eternal. 


SONG  FOR  THE  COMING   CRISIS. 
(1858.) 

O   Church   of   Christ,  to  prayer,   to  prayer !    lean  on   thy 

sacred  shrine, 
And   there  while   lowly  bowing   down,  receive   the   strength 

divine  : 
Then   rise    and    let    thy   faithful   word   be    healing    for   our 

woes, 
And   let    the    Spirit's    flaming    sword    be    lightning    on   thy 

foes  ! 

Hark !    in  the    horologue  of   Time,  God   strikes  the    awful 

hour  ! 
Zion  must  now  stand  face  to  face  with  Moloch's  threat'ning 

power  ; 
The  subtle  snare  of  compromise  her  hand  and  tongue  that 

bound, 
Breaks  clean   away,  and   now   her  feet  take   hold   on   solid 

ground. 

And  there  she  stands  —  aye,  on  the  Rock  where  stood  God's 

Church  of  old, 
When    seas    of    blood   dashed   at   her  feet,   and  waves   of 

trouble  rolled, 
There  let  her  speak  in   that  great    name   which    faithless 

men  profane, 
And  they  who   scoff  at   Freedom's   Word   shall   wag  their 

tongue  in  vain. 


236  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

By    the    blest    throngs    of    pilgrim   ghosts   that  haunt  New 

England's  air ; 
By  pilgrim  graves   o'er  all  her  hills   and   down   her  valleys 

fair ; 
By  all   the   pilgrim's   faith    in   God   that    burns   within   our 

souls  ; 
By   every  drop   of    pilgrim  blood   that   through   her  bosom 


No  hunters   here  for  human    prey  to    snuff  their    trail  of 

blood  ; 
No  laws  to  grind  the  helpless  poor  and   break   the  laws  of 

God,; 
No  tyrant's  troops  to  line  our  streets  or   tramp  our  valleys 

green, 
While    Bunker's    shaft    looks   from  the    sky  down    on   the 

shameful  scene  ! 

1 

Ring   with    thy  bells    a    swift   alarm    from   every   crashing 

spire, 
And  speak  with  lips  which    God's   right   hand   has   touched 

with  coals  of  fire  ; 
Let  Christ's  whole   Gospel   be   proclaimed,  let   God's  whole 

truth  be  shown, 
And   let   the    East   and   West    respond   and   echo   tone  for 

tone. 

Then  rise,  O  Church  of  Christ,  arise  !  shake  off  thy  slumbers 

now, 
God's  conquering   strength    within    thy   heart,  his    calmness 

on  thy  brow  ; 
In  Christ's  dear  name  who  died  for  man,  put  all  thy  glories 

on  ; 
No  bondsman's   blood   upon   thy  robes,  no   stain   upon   thy 

lawn  ! 


HYMN. 

(FOR   THE  ANNIVERSARY   AT   PLYMOUTH    IN    1S53.) 

Beneath  the  hallowed  ground  where  now  ye  tread, 
New  England's  first  and  holiest  martyrs  sleep, 

And  ocean  waves  to  celebrate  the  dead 
Lift  the  eternal  anthems  of  the  deep. 

And  here  their  might}*  spirits  linger  long, 

They  walk  abroad  through  all  the  hallowed  air, 

And  where  a  pulse  for  Freedom  beats  more  strong, 
Know  ye  that  pilgrim   blood  is  coursing  there. 

O  ye  whose  sacred  dust  on  Burial  Hill 
Kind  mother  Earth  in  holy  trust  contains  ! 

Above  the  cause  ye  loved   keep  watching  still, 
And  roll  your  fire  through  all  our  languid  veins. 

Then  from  New  England's  hills,  afar  and  near, 
A  light  shall  stream  in  columns  to  the  skies, 

And  like  a  new  Aurora,  shall  appear 
Where'er  a  race  in  chains  and  darkness  lies. 


24O  SERMONS  AND  SOAKS. 

regard.  The  narrative  implies  that  a  good  deal 
more  was  said ;  that  this  was  not  the  first  in- 
stance of  interference,  and  that  John  has  been  very 
reticent,  and  thrown  a  veil  over  the  weakness  of 
Mary. 

You  observe  in  all  the  narratives  how  Jesus  de- 
signedly avoids  calling  her  his  mother.  He  never 
addresses  her  by  that  title.  In  another  instance  of 
similar  interference,  while  Jesus  was  in  the  midst 
of  one  of  his  sublime  utterances,  his  mother  sent 
in  word  that  she  desired  an  interview  with  Him. 
The  message  seems  to  have  interrupted  his  dis- 
course. "  Thy  mother  and  thy  brethren  stand  with- 
out, desiring  to  speak  with  thee."  But  he  answered, 
"  Who  is  my  mother  and  who  are  my  brethren  ? " 
And  then,  pointing  to  his  disciples,  "  Behold  my 
mother  and  my  brethren  ;  "  as  if  saying,  I  acknowl- 
edge no  relations  but  spiritual  ones,  no  bonds  but 
those  of  humanity.  And  again,  after  one  of  those 
discourses  which  thrilled  the  multitude  by  its  power, 
a  voice  broke  from  the  crowd,  "  Blessed  is  she  that 
bore  thee,  and  the  breasts  which  nourished  thee  ; " 
when  Jesus  put  in  a  sort  of  disclaimer,  "  Rather 
blessed  are  they  that  hear  the  word  of  God  and 
keep  it." 

From  all  this  we  infer  that  Mary  had  the  weak- 
nesses that  belong  to  human  nature  ;  that  some  of 
them  were  so  prominent  that  they  needed  reproof 
and  palliation  ;    that   Jesus   treats    her  with   tender 


IDEALS   OF  WOMANHOOD.  24 1 

regard,  not  merely  because  he  was  born  of  her,  but 
because  she  was  a  woman,  brought  into  special  per- 
sonal relations  with  Him,  and  a  partaker  of  the 
common  humanity  He  came  to  redeem.  I  suppose 
that  by  thus  ignoring  the  maternal  relation,  He 
simply  claims  that  all  his  endowments  are  from  a 
Divine  Fatherhood.  As  if  He  would  say,  "  All  that 
I  am  comes  from  the  paternal  side.  No  matter 
how  weak,  or  how  low  down  the  humanity  which  I 
have  assumed,  I  owe  nothing  to  it  but  the  cloth- 
ing through  which  the  Divine  Word  is  embodied 
and  revealed."  The  nature  and  character  of  Mary 
have  no  more  to  do  with  the  life  and  character  of 
Jesus  than  those  of  any  other  woman.  We  do  not 
know  that  she  was  exceptionably  good,  though  she" 
might  have  been,  notwithstanding  her  weakness. 
The  Eternal  Word,  descending  into  this  world  to  re- 
deem it,  must  needs  be  born  into  it  ;  but  it  received 
no  education  from  human  fathers  or  mothers,  and 
no  taint  and  mixture  of  our  depravity.  And  so 
Jesus  calls  Himself  "  the  Son  of  God,"  "  the  only 
begotten  Son  of  God,"  but  never  the  Son  of  Mary. 
By  virtue  of  his  human  birth,  He  calls  himself  "  the 
Son  of  man,"  —  a  generic  title,  importing  that  He 
inherits  not  the  nature  of  one  man,  but  of  humanity 
in  the  complex,  that  He  might  become  conscious  of 
the  whole  range  of  wants,  sufferings,  and  tempta- 
tions, which  through  Him  were  to  be  supplied  with 
strength  from  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead. 


242  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

The  ideals  of  a  true  and  perfect  womanhood,  what 
they  are  and  whence  they  should  be  sought,  is  a  sub- 
ject suggested  by  the  text,  and  one  of  exceeding  in- 
terest. If  once  we  can  put  away  from  us  the  ideals 
which  are  false  and  illusive,  and  bring  fairly  before 
us  those  which  are  true  and  inspiring,  we  shall  do 
much  to  solve  one  of  the  problems  of  the  day.  Let 
us  enlarge  for  a  few  moments  on  each  of  these  two 
topics.     First  the  false  ideals  and  then  the  true  ones. 

I.  Perhaps  four  fifths  of  the  Christian  Church  re- 
lapsed early  into  Mariolatry,  and  they  remain  in  that 
worship  still.  Not  the  Roman  Church  only,  but  the 
Greek,  and  portions  of  the  Protestant,  draw  hence 
their  ideals  of  perfect  womanhood.  The  reasons  of 
this  are  very  obvious.  The  office  of  Christ  as  a  Me- 
diator had  been  made  so  official  and  technical  and 
exclusively  theological  as  to  take  Him  out  of  the 
sphere  of  our  humanity,  or  any  genial  relations  with 
it.  So  the  want  was  still  felt  of  a  Mediator  ;  one  of 
tenderness  and  gentleness  and  humane  sympathies  ; 
such  as  do  not  belong  to  our  coarser  manhood,  but 
which  are  the  very  essence  and  inspiration  of  the 
highest  and  truest  womanhood.  And  Mary  comes 
in  to  supply  the  place  ;  not  any  Mary  that  ever  lived, 
but  one  who  embodied  the  highest  conception  which 
the  Church  then  had  of  the  perfect  woman.  And  it 
is  vain  to  say  that  the  influence  of  this  idolatry  was 
altogether  bad.  In  times  of  cruelty  and  theologic 
hate,  what  a  persuasive  must  it  have  been  to  tolerance 


IDEALS  OF     WOMANHOOD.  243 

and  mercy  !  When  the  priesthood  was  corrupt,  and 
when  men  like  Charlemagne,  who  were  held  as  the 
models  of  virtue,  had  the  stains  of  blood  on  their 
garments,  there  was  at  least  one  form  of  human  nat- 
ure which  was  held  aloft  and  worshipped,  and  which 
breathed  of  gentleness  and  charity.  Not  any  Mary 
that  ever  lived,  but  an  ideal  womanhood,  gathering 
into  itself  some  of  the  holiest  feminine  attributes, 
Mercy  and  Charity  and  humane  sympathies,  was  en- 
throned among  the  idols  of  a  corrupt  and  sensuous 
age  ;  and  when  the  attributes  of  God  and  of  Christ 
were  both  lost  sight  of,  and  the  means  of  knowing 
them  from  the  Scriptures  were  in  the  keeping  of  a 
corrupt  priesthood,  that  sweet  and  beautiful  ideal  of 
womanhood  shed  its  lustre  among  the  cruelties  of 
dungeons,  scaffolds,  and  battle-fields,  and  did  some- 
thing to  soften  and  to  mitigate.  It  hung  on  the 
walls  of  churches  ;  it  melted  through  the  imagina- 
tions of  cruel  and  sensuous  men  as  a  heavenly  vis- 
ion pleading  for  humanity. 

On  the  other  hand,  how  defective  and  one-sided 
are  these  ideals,  and  how  liable  to  abuse  and  degra- 
dation, inspiring  the  devotion  of  cloisters  and  nun- 
neries, and  a  dried  up  virtue  that  wants  healthful 
blood  and  out-door  freshness  !  The  saints  after  this 
model  became  intensely  conscious  of  their  piety  and 
sanctity,  wore  halos  around  their  heads,  with  a  roll- 
ing up  of  the  eyes,  as  if  they  were  too  good  for  the 
earth,  and  did  not  really  belong  to  it.     No  inspira- 


244  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

tion  comes  hence,  infusing  energy  for  the  great  con- 
flicts of  life  and  strength  under  its  burdens. 

In  one  of  the  most  celebrated  art  galleries,  after 
passing  one  picture  after  another  of  saints  in  atti- 
tudes, with  halos  about  them,  holy  families,  and  Ma- 
donnas in  robes  of  artificial  sanctity,  you  come  at 
length  to  one  of  the  grand  historic  scenes,  setting 
forth  the  old  Roman  idea  of  womanly  virtue.  It  is 
the  death  of  Virginia.  On  the  other  side  is  Junius 
Brutus  passing  the  death-sentence  on  his  two  sons 
for  treason  ;  all  suggesting  how  clearly  and  sublimely 
the  old  stoical  virtue  could  rise  above  the  weakness 
of  kindred  ties  and  the  bribes  of  self-interest.  Its 
ideals  were  not  the  highest,  but  our  weak,  senti- 
mental Christianity  has  hardly  improved  upon  them. 
I  think  they  come  in  as  a  mighty  relief  after  those 
other  models  of  cloister  piety  and  devotion  kept  and 
nourished  for  shrines  and  postures. 

II.  But  false  ideals  all  aside,  we  come  to  the  ques- 
tion, Where  shall  we  find  the  models  of  that  woman- 
hood most  worthy  of  our  admiration  ?  Christ  was  a 
pattern  of  the  perfect  man  ;  where,  if  not  in  the 
mother  of  Christ,  shall  we  find  the  pattern  of  the 
perfect  woman  ?  Shall  we  look  along  the  ages  and 
take  the  Virginias,  the  Rebeccas,  the  Marys,  and  the 
Joans,  put  them  all  together  in  order  to  make  out  the 
ideal  which  we  are  in  quest  of,  very  much  as  the 
sculptor  takes  a  grace  here  and  a  contour  there  from 
the  best  patterns  he  can  find  ?     The  very  question 


IDEALS  OF   WOMANHOOD.  245 

suggests  how  deceptive  are  all  models  and  all  outside 
patterns,  and  that  the  standard  towards  which  we  as- 
pire is  to  be  sought  in  some  other  way.  Christ,  it  is 
true,  is  the  perfect  man,  the  full-orbed  humanity. 
But  even  He  does  not  present  Himself  to  us  as  a 
model.  He  never  asks  us  to  imitate  Him.  Imita- 
tion of  other  people's  virtue  is  nothing  but  a  kind  of 
mimicry  after  all,  and  never  opens  in  the  heart  the 
original  springs  of  piety  and  goodness.  "  If  any  man 
thirst,"  says  Jesus,  "  let  him  come  unto  me  and  drink  ; 
for  he  that  believeth  on  me,  out  of  his  heart  shall  flow 
rivers  of  living  water."  Inspiration,  not  imitation,  is 
the  privilege  of  the  hearty  Christian  believer ;  and 
inspiration  unfolds  all  the  best  possibilities  of  our 
nature  whether  of  men  or  women ;  unfolds  each  on 
its  own  line  of  organic  growth  and  development. 
It  does  not  make  women  into  men,  nor  men  into 
women  ;  but  it  makes  men  more  manly  and  women 
more  womanly,  drawing  each  into  those  excellencies 
and  perfections  for  which  the  hand  of  the  Creator 
originally  attuned  their  natures.  Neither  men  nor 
women  are  called  to  do  just  the  things  that  Christ 
did,  and  do  them  in  just  the  way  He  did  ;  and  if  we 
attempted  this  our  mimicry  would  appear  fantastic 
enough.  But  Jesus  as  Mediator  draws  us  up  into  full 
intercourse  and  communion  with  the  Divine  Nature 
itself,  in  which  are  all  the  perfections  of  both  halves 
of  our  finite  humanity.  Avoid  the  absurdity  of  mak- 
ing Christ  one    God  and  the  Father  another  God ; 


246  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

but  regard  Christ  as  the  manifestation  of  the  whole 
Divine  Nature,  all  its  energy,  all  its  sweetness,  and 
all  its  tenderness  ;  the  Fountain  of  all  that  is  good 
in  father  or  mother,  or  brother  or  sister,  or  man  or 
woman  or  child,  and  then  the  worship  of  God  through 
Christ  brings  forth  the  graces  of  each  one's  nature 
that  belong  to  that  nature  and  none  other.  The  vine 
and  the  oak  which  it  clasps  and  adorns  both  drink 
the  same  sunbeams  ;  one  does  not  become  the  other 
by  growth  and  culture,  but  each  grows  into  its  own 
kind  of  perfection  and  grace.  Woman  is  capable  of 
a  kind  of  perfection  that  men  never  can  reach ;  of 
diviner  sympathies  especially  as  they  embrace  in- 
fancy or  childhood,  divining  its  wants  and  woes  and 
all  the  fit  ministrations  to  human  suffering.  Men 
are  capable  of  a  kind  of  perfection  that  women  are 
not ;  I  will  not  say  a  lower  kindy»but  more  outer 
and  tangible,  and  which  pertains  more  to  the  under- 
standing than  the  heart.  Women  reach  conclusions 
through  intuition  and  perception,  men  through  logic 
and  induction  —  a  slower  and  more  circuitous  way. 
And  even  in  the  discharge  of  the  same  duties,  each 
sex  has  its  own  style  of  doing  things,  and  when  one 
undertakes  the  style  of  the  other  they  cease  to  act 
themselves.  The  evil  of  all  man  worship  or  woman 
worship  is  to  make  the  worshippers  one-sided  and 
untrue  to  themselves,  and  if  they  attain  morbidly  in 
one  direction  they  are  sure  to  become  lean  and 
shrunken   somewhere   else.     The   ideals    which    we 


IDEALS  OF  WOMANHOOD.  247 

ought  therefore  to  follow  are  those  which  dawn  con- 
tinually upon  our  rising  faith  as  they  are  let  down  to 
us  every  day  out  of  heaven.  They  are  on  some  line 
of  action  to  which, you  will  be  sure  to  be  called  as  a 
follower  of  Christ  ;  called  by  the  spirit  of  Christ 
within  you,  and  the  standard  of  duty  which  shines  on 
before  you.  They  are  not  patterns  which  you  get 
from  outside  ;  they  are  the  angels  of  God's  presence 
that  beckon  from  above  and  call,  "  This  is  the  way, 
walk  ye  in  it."  Perhaps  it  is  a  way  which  nobody 
ever  walked  before  with  the  same  step,  because  abil- 
ity and  opportunity  have  not  been  given  to  others 
as  to  you. 

All  the  disputes  about  the  equality  of  the  sexes 
come  from  the  conceit  which  some  have  that  manly 
excellence  is  of  a  higher  order  than  womanly  ;  that 
the  head  is  nobler  than  the  heart ;  that  intellect  is 
a  higher  attribute  than  love  ;  that  muscular  power 
ranks  higher  than  moral  power  ;  that  the  mind  which 
plans  for  brilliant  campaigns  and  great  military 
achievements,  or  for  building  roads  and  bridges,  and 
making  money  and  subduing  physical  nature,  ranks 
higher  than  the  spirit  of  goodness,  without  which  all 
power  is  only  brute  force,  and  the  highest  intellec- 
tion only  contrivance  for  pomp  and  show.  It  is  bad 
enough  for  men  to  claim  this  supremacy  ;  it  is  worse 
when  woman  is  seized  with  the  same  ambition  and 
tries  to  grasp  it,  instead  of  accepting  the  royalty 
which  God  and   nature  have  given  her,  which  wears 


248  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

the  highest  crown,  and  which  rules  by  diviner  and 
less  vulgar  methods.  God  is  love  ;  and  love  is  his 
highest  attribute,  because  it  inspires  and  gives  direc- 
tion to  all  the  other  attributes.  It  is  this  which  is 
given  supremely  to  woman,  and  she  descends  to  a 
lower  position  whenever  she  renounces  its  preroga- 
tives. 

What  is  it  to  be  a  follower  of  Christ,  then  ?  It  is 
to  be  brought  in  Him  and  through  Him  into  a  more 
full  communion  with  God,  so  that  out  of  the  Divine 
Nature  our  own  natures  are  supplied  and  impleted, 
and  all  their  heavenly  possibilities  are  unfolded. 
Men  gain  strength  and  energy  to  be  men.  Women 
gain  strength  and  energy  to  be  women.  Matrons  be- 
come better  mothers  when  they  put  on  Christ,  be- 
cause the  parental  instinct  is  then  purged  of  selfish- 
ness and  gains  wisdom  and  direction.  Maidens  rise 
to  a  purer  and  nobler  maidenhood  when  they  put  on 
Christ,  because  then  they  forget  themselves  in  a 
Christian  calling  that  gives  scope  to  all  the  womanly 
graces  and  virtues,  and  they  are  saved  from  the  van- 
ities of  worldly  show.  The  Mary  Wares  and  Car- 
penters, or  the  Marys  of  any  age,  do  not  follow  their 
Christian  calling  because  some  outside  pattern  has 
been  held  before  them,  but  because  through  the 
Christ  they  had  a  profounder  baptism  into  the  Di- 
vine love,  and  were  inspired  to  do  the  promptings 
which  it  gave  them.  What  the  Church  needs  now 
and  ever  is  inspiration  ;    the  soul    of  goodness  put 


IDEALS  OF  WOMANHOOD.  249 

into  its  enterprises,  its  charities,  its  schools,  its  wor- 
ship, its  missions,  its  forthgoings  to  save  the  world 
and  redeem  it  ;  and  woman  is  doubly  responsible  for 
this,  because  her  nature  is,  or  should  be,  more  recep- 
tive of  the  Divine  goodness,  and  ought  to  make 
channels  for  it  through  all  the  ways  of  the  world. 

There  is  a  very  beautiful  custom  observed  in 
Catholic  countries,  of  keeping  the  churches  open  on 
week  days,  so  that  people  can  come  in  and  kneel 
and  worship  at  any  hour,  and  go  away  strengthened 
and  refreshed  for  their  duties.  Opposite  the  great 
York  Minster  is  a  Catholic  church,  famous  as  the 
one  in  which  Guy  Fawks  was  baptized.  Beside  the 
high  altar  is  a  statue  of  Christ,  in  the  features  of 
which  are  more  of  benignity  and  Divine  Majesty 
than  I  ever  saw  put  into  marble.  It  was  very  touch- 
ing to  see  the  market  women  from  the  street,  one  of 
them  halt  and  lame,  totter  along  the  aisles,  and  come 
and  kneel  before  it,  and  then  go  away  with  bright- 
ened features  to  their  humble  work.  In  a  remote 
corner  of  the  church  was  a  shrine  to  the  Virgin,  and 
there  went  the  delicate  ladies  to  kneel  and  mutter 
for  the  hour,  not  imbibing  strength  for  the  burdens 
of  the  day,  but  to  get  a  draught  of  sentimentalism 
for  an  indolent  devotion.  And  this,  I  think,  repre- 
sents two  kinds  of  worship,  one  bearing  up  the  soul 
through  a  full-orbed  and  perfect  humanity  to  the 
Father  of  all,  the  other  exhaling  in  raptures  before 
ideals  which  have  the  strength  and  majesty  taken 


250  SERM0ATS  AND  SONGS. 

out  and  our  finite  weakness  put  in  their  place.  One 
ends  in  mere  sentiment  ;  the  other  goes  with  us 
where  we  take  up  our  burdens,  and  makes  them 
light  and  easy. 

As  to  the  ideals  needed  most  for  the  womanhood 
of  our  times,  and  the  work  of  to-day,  I  think  there 
is  no  room  for  mistake.  Men  become  coarse,  earthly, 
and  cruel,  where  women  are  frivolous,  selfish,  and 
worldly.  Men  become  brave,  just,  and  honorable, 
where  women  shed  abroad  the  grace,  the  charity, 
and  the  self-sacrificing  spirit  of  the  Gospel.  Family 
affections  become  enlarged  and  ennobled  into  phi- 
lanthropy with  maternal  and  sisterly  tenderness 
breathed  into  them,  where  Christian  womanhood 
presides  in  the  household.  Childhood  takes  the  im- 
press of  heaven  and  grows  into  the  bright  image  of 
God,  if  unfolded  beneath  the  moral  power  and  mould- 
ing of  a  Christian  womanhood.  It  is  apt  to  take  on 
the  coarseness  of  masculine  vices  and  depravities, 
where  mothers  renounce  their  charge  to  a  lower 
order  of  minds  that  they  may  have  time  for  pleasure 
and  amusement.  Compassion  towards  all  that  suffer, 
whether  man  or  animal,  or  bird  or  insect ;  intoler- 
ance of  any  needless  pang  in  any  creature  that 
breathes,  —  these  are  full  and  operative  where  wom- 
an's nature  has  its  rightful  baptism  in  the  Divine 
Love,  and  this  compassion  fails  from  its  channels,  just 
in  the  degree  that  woman  fails  from  the  duties  of  her 
sphere.     Higher  than  any  sphere  which  modern  dis- 


IDEALS  OF   WOMANHOOD.  25  1 

covery  can  open  to  her,  is  this  inmost  and  highest 
one  whose  shrine  has  no  fit  priesthood  when  she 
fails  from  it,  and  through  which  come  the  unction 
and  the  inspiration  in  all  the  lower  departments  of 
human  activity.  The  freedom  which  woman  should 
demand  is  to  do  and  to  be  all  that  Christianity  in  its 
full  reception  inspires  her  to  do  and  to  be  ;  for  then 
she  will  demand  nothing  which  is  unwomanly  or 
which  is  not  congenerous  with  her  nature  in  its  pure 
and  heavenly  development.  No  danger  then  that 
she  will  cease  to  be  herself,  or  that  she  will  fail  to 
fulfill  the  demands  of  her  whole  being.  The  work 
of  moulding  the  faculties,  when  young  and  tender,  of 
evoking  the  powers  of  childhood,  whether  in  fami- 
lies or  schools,  is  preeminently  hers  ;  and  it  is  a 
higher  work,  because  a  more  interior  one  than  that 
which  is  done  in  legislatures  or  on  battle-fields  ;  for 
without  it  the  legislatures  and  the  battle-fields  would 
be  lacking  in  the  virtue  and  the  consecration  which 
save  them  from  becoming  the  scenes  for  the  wran- 
gles and  strifes  of  older  children.  "  Behold  my 
mother  and  my  brethren,"  is  still  the  benediction  of 
the  Master  upon  those  who  are  doing  the  Father's 
will,  each  according  to  the  methods  of  his  original 
genius,  enlarged  and  sanctified  by  the  Christ  within. 
Men  have  lectured  and  legislated  upon  intemper- 
ance, one  of  the  crying  evils  of  the  day,  and  from 
which  women  suffer  more  than  men,  because  their 
sensibilities  are  susceptible  of  deeper  and  more  cruel 


252  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

wounds.  We  have  long  felt  that  this  reform  needed 
a  soul  to  it,  a  moral  suasion  which  could  find  deeper 
springs  of  action  and  melt  through  the  sordid  self- 
ishness of  men  with  diviner  touches.  Do  not  say 
that  woman  may  not  supply  the  very  element  we 
need  because  of  the  irregularities  which  thus  far 
have  attended  the  new  methods  of  reform.  There 
are  always  irregularities  where  the  deepest  inspira- 
tion and  the  loudest  cry  of  God  through  the  soul 
must  beat  against  the  iron  bars  of  a  brute  conserva- 
tism, and  break  through  them  to  get  free.  What 
real  men  ought  to  say  to  these  women  is,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  "  Godspeed  you  in  your  work  !  May  you 
succeed  where  we  have  failed  !  We  will  do  our  best 
to  prepare  the  way  for  you,  that  the  voice  of  the 
Spirit  may  have  its  utterance  and  sweep  this  evil 
from  the  land  !  " 

Ideals  of  womanhood !  They  come  down  from 
heaven  every  day  and  every  hour ;  they  grow 
brighter  and  warmer  as  your  Christian  conscious- 
ness grows  clearer.  Follow  them  as  the  angels  of 
God's  presence,  no  matter  into  what  new  and  orig- 
inal fields  of  beneficence  they  beckon  you  ;  no  mat- 
ter what  barriers  must  be  broken  through,  if  the 
voice  of  the  Christ  in  you  is  calling  you  to  work 
with  Him  and  gain  the  victory  !  Do  you  say  that 
the  world  will  laugh,  or  that  public  opinion  bars 
you  from  your  appropriate  sphere  ?  But  what  is  the 
laugh   of   the  world  but  the   "  crackling  of   thorns 


IDEALS   OF   WOMANHOOD.  253 

under  a  pot  ? "  And  as  for  public  opinion,  it  is  what 
in  large  measure  you  make  yourselves,  and  would  to 
God  you  had  made  it  better !  More  than  any  man 
or  all  the  men  together,  you  make  the  fashions  of 
the  time,  and  you  make  them  run  to  show,  and  the 
lavishment  of  expense  on  the  flaring  vanities  of 
earth,  and  take  away  just  so  much  from  the  higher 
culture,  and  from  the  means  of  making  light  the 
weary  burdens  of  life.  There  are  reforms  yet  to  be 
achieved,  which  require  no  renunciation  of  Chris- 
tian womanhood,  but  demand  that  it  be  put  on  in 
its  completeness  and  beauty,  as  you  follow  Christ 
in  the  regeneration. 


GIRLHOOD    AND    WOMANHOOD. 

i. 

What  strange  magic  brings  before  me  that  old  school- 
house  on  the  green, 

While  the  dusk  of  time  is  gathering  over  all  that  lies  be- 
tween ? 

Seats    adorned  with   rustic   carvings,    shaky  clapboards   old 

and  gray, 
Smoky  walls  and  broken  windows  and  the  pig-weeds  by  the 

way, 

Little    griefs    of   little    children   felt    beneath   the    tyrant's 

rule, 
Or  the   big  boys',  who  were   hazers  of  the   ancient   country 

school. 

All  the  squalor  and   the   sorrow  of  that  earliest  fairy-land, 
Change  within   the  magic  sunshine  ;  all   the  dirt   is  golden 
sand. 

What  were  pedagogues  and  hazers  !  faces  bright  were  al- 
ways there, 

And  the  morning  came  new  risen  from  the  face  of  Ellen 
Clare  ; 

She  the  tall  and   beaming  maiden,  whom  we    always  ran  to 

meet, 
Just  escaping  from  our  cradles  on  our  little  twinkling  feet. 


256  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

They    may   sing    of   gentle    ladies    holding    court  at   castle 

hall, 
But  our   country-girl   was   peerless,    and    more    gentle  than 

they  all  : 


For  she  brought  the  bloom   of   orchards  in    the  glow  upon 

her  cheek, 
And  we   thought   of   golden    robins   every   time   we    heard 

her  speak  ; 

As    she    smoothed    the    tear-wrought    channels   where    our 

sorrow  had  its  flow, 
And  brought   sunshine   o'er   the   faces  which   the  imps  had 

scoured  with  snow. 

Dancing-schools,  and   dancing-masters!  —  pastures  with  the 

lambs  at  play, 
Or  the  breezy  heights   and   ridges,   where   we   climbed   the 

summer's   day. 

Singing-schools!  —  among  the  orchards,  with  the  birds  at 
matin-time, 

Or  the  morning  stars  together  singing  to  their  march  sub- 
lime. 

So  she  danced  with  breezy  motion,  breezy  as  the  light  ga- 
zelle's, 

And  her  singing  soared  the  sweetest  over  all  the  village 
belles. 

O,  the  memories  of  our  childhood  coming  thick  and  mani- 
fold, 

Drifting  westward  down  the  valleys  fleecy  clouds  that  turn 
to  gold  ! 


GIRLHOOD  AND    WOMANHOOD.  257 

II. 
They  wandered  east,  they  wandered  west, 

On  prairie,  shore,  and  sea  ; 
One  sleeps  beneath  the  ocean's  breast, 
And  some  have  found  the  last  long  rest 

Beneath  the  willow-tree. 

Beside  yon  hill  that  cuts  the  air 

With  its  blue  curving  line, 
There  lives  a  maid  ;  she  once  was  fair,  — 
She  's  fairer  now  ;  her  silver  hair 

Has  caught  the  heavenly  shine. 

Her  song  of  cheer  still  rises  clear, 

In  hymns  of  softer  strain  ; 
Where  sorrow  sheds  the  bitter  tear, 
Or  where  the  spoiler's  step  draws  near 

The  couch  of  mortal  pain. 

Where  anguish  needs  the  cooling  palm, 

Or  worn  and  fevered  care  ; 
Where  sin  pines  sore  for  mercy's  balm 
There  will  you  find,  through  storm  and  calm, 

The  paths  of  Ellen  Clare  ; 

With  heart  to  weep  with  him  that  weeps, 

And  love  with  him  that  loves  :  — 
Why  one  deep  chord  its  silence  keeps 
Ask  not  of  me  ;  ask  him  who  sleeps 

In  ocean's  coral  groves. 

O'er  Ellen's  cot,  on  yonder  height 
The  evening  star  stands  still, 
17 


258  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

And  flames  in  larger  lustre  bright, 
Before  it  looks  a  last  good-night 
And  drops  behind  the   hill. 

Even  so  thy  life,  O  lady  blest, 

Pours  its  last  beauteous  ray  ; 

Its  evening  glories  are  its  best, 

As  sinking  to  thy  heavenly  rest. 

They  melt  from  earth  away. 


XVI. 

THE  DIVINE  LIFE-PLAN. 

Romans  viii.  28-30.     All  things  work  together  for  good,  to 
them  that  love  God,  to  them  who  are  the  called  according  to 
his  purpose.      For  whom  He  did  foreknow,  He   also  did 
Predestinate ......   whom  He  did  predestinate,  them  He 

also  called:  and  whom  He  called,  them  He  also  justified : 
and  whom  He  justified,  them  He  also  glorified. 

IF  a  peasant,  on  some  clear  evening,  were  to  look 
up  to  the  heavens,  he  would  see  nothing  but  a 
wilderness  of  lights,  —  stars  and  star-dust,  strown 
at  random  through  the  fields  of  space.  The  main 
work  of  science  is  to  detect  in  this  wilderness  the 
principle  of  arrangement.  And  as  far  as  this  is 
done,  every  drop  of  star-dust  becomes  part  of  a 
system,  and  there  is  no  atom  that  is  not  in  its 
place,  and  doing  its  work  in  the  universe.  Just  so 
it  is  with  events  ;  with  all  that  enters  into  human 
history  and  experience.  Our  human  life  seems  at 
first  chaotic,  and  things  happen  to  us  according  to 
no  principle  of  order.  But  all  our  later  experience 
goes  to  detect  this  order,  and  could  we  see  the 
whole,  no  event  would  stand  separate,  and  all  the 
star-dust  would    be  formed  into  worlds. 


260  SERMOXS  AND  SOXGS. 

It.  is  not  much  to  have  a  mere  general  acknowl- 
edgment of  a  Divine  Providence.  There  is  no 
Christian  doctrine  more  abused  and  perverted,  for 
there  is  hardly  any  calamity  which  flows  from  hu- 
man wickedness  which  is  not  laid  off  upon  the 
Providence  of  God.  We  are  very  apt  to  lose  one 
grand  and  vital  distinction.  There  are  two  kinds 
of  Providence,  acting  according  to  the  free-will  and 
purpose  of  man.  There  is  the  Providence  which 
leads  on,  marks  out  the  way,  urges,  compels  even, 
by  shutting  us  off  from  one  line  of  action,  and 
shutting  us  in  to  another.  Then  there  is  the  Prov- 
idence which  only  follows  ;  which  allows  a  thing  to 
be  done,  but  does  not  lead  on  to  its  doing  ;  which 
will  not  break  in  upon  man's  agency,  though  he 
plunge  into  the  blackest  crime,  but  goes  after  and 
mitigates.  Hence,  there  is  a  directing  Providence, 
and  a  preventive  Providence.  One  leads  us  if  we 
will  be  led.  The  other  follows  us  whether  we 
will  be  led  or  not,  keeps  its  hand  upon  us,  and  sub- 
ordinates even  our  crimes  to  its  eternal  purpose. 
You  will  observe  in  the  text,  it  is  the  Providence 
that  leads  and  draws  us  on  which  is  described  ;  not 
that  which  would  prevent  merely,  but  which  would 
attract  and  win  ;  not  Calvin's  dogma  of  decrees, 
but  God's  adaptations  to  man,  by  arranging  the 
events  of  life  according  to  his  supreme  and  heav- 
enly   order. 

I.  A  divine  plan  is  distinctly  marked  out,  within 


THE  DIVINE  LIFE-PLAN.  26 1 

which  every  regenerating  man  is  drawn  and  kept  by 
a  chain  that  cannot  break.  Mark  the  steps.  "  Whom 
He  did  foreknow,  He  also  did  predestinate :  whom 
He  did  predestinate,  them  He  also  called :  whom  He 
called,  them  He  also  justified  :  and  whom  He  justified, 
them  He  also  glorified  "  Let  us  pause  a  little  upon 
these  terms.  They  have  been  petrified  into  dogmas. 
But  rightly  rendered,  they  give  us  a  Christian  view 
of  life  so  much  above  the  times  of  the  Apostle  as  to 
avouch  its  Divine  origin  ;  and  we  shall  alike  admire 
its  sublimity,  and  be  soothed  with  its  consolations. 

"  Foreknowledge."  With  God  there  cannot  be 
any  foreknowledge  which  comes  from  forecalculating 
future  events  ;  for  God,  unlike  us,  sees  events  wrapped 
up  in  their  causes.  If  an  acorn  could  be  transparent, 
and  you  should  hold  it  up  to  the  solar  microscope, 
you  would  see  in  the  germ  of  it  the  future  oak  out- 
lined distinctly  in  all  its  branches.  And  in  a  hand- 
ful of  acorns  you  would  see  perspectively  the  lofty 
and  wide-spreading  forest.  So,  doubtless,  God  sees 
all  that  is  to  be  ;  the  whole  future  in  the  present ; 
things  to  be  are  as  things  that  are  ;  all  that  we  are  — 
beneath  the  deepest  scope  of  our  self-consciousness, 
is  open  to  Him,  and  therefore  He  knows  all  that  is  to 
come  of  it.  For  our  natural  life,  down  to  the  smallest 
events  and  happenings,  is  but  the  flower  and  foliage 
of  our  spiritual  life,  even  to  the  branches  and  the 
stems  and  the  fluttering  leaves. 

"  Predestinate."     More  rigidly  rendered,  limited 


262  SERMONS  AND  SOXGS. 

beforehand.  And  the  meaning  is,  most  clearly,  the 
Lord  prearranged  our  life-plan,  so  that  all  events 
should  be  fitted  into  it,  and  every  thread  and  fibre  in 
a  man's  surroundings  be  so  woven  and  adjusted  as 
best  to  secure  the  end.  This  is  the  preordering, 
exactly  suited  to  the  most  propitious  unfolding  of 
one's  spiritual  being. 

"  Calling."  This  is  more  than  arranging  events 
for  us  and  adjusting  circumstances.  It  is  God  speak- 
ing to  the  inward  mind,  now  open  to  the  tidings  of 
higher  things.  It  is  the  Divine  law  lying  audibly 
upon  the  conscience.  It  is  that  stage  of  the  human 
experience  sure  to  come  with  every  man  when  there 
is  the  call  and  the  answer  between  God  and  his  child. 
On  one  side,  "  Hearken  to  my  voice  !  "  On  the  other, 
"  Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  ?  "  The  sol- 
emn period  this,  when  you  wake  up  to  the  necessity 
of  moral  choosing  by  that  voice  within  the  soul 
which  comes  louder  than  the  sound  of  many  waters 
over  the  clamor  of  our  self-interests  and  passions. 

"  Justified."  Better  rendered,  made  righteous  ; 
for  that  comes  when  the  calling  is  obeyed  ;  not  an 
imputed  and  make-believe  righteousness,  but  being 
made  an  obedient  subject  of  the  law  of  Right,  laid 
with  supreme  authority  upon  the  conscience,  making 
you  yielding  and  pliant  under  it  as  a  little  child. 

"  Glorified."  This,  in  Scripture-phrase,  has  a 
meaning  exceedingly  definite.  It  is  not  translation 
into    some   heaven   of   material    splendor.     What  it 


THE  DIVINE   LIFE-PLAN.  263 

means  we  know  very  well  from  what  is  called  "  the 
glorification  "  of  our  Saviour.  That  was  when  the  in- 
most Divine  Life  came  out  in  all  its  fullness,  in  place 
of  the  lower  and  earthly  life  which  it  displaced  for- 
ever ;  and  then  He  was  transfigured  to  his  disciples, 
or  to  John,  in  vision  clothed  in  heavenly  majesty. 
So  of  his  followers.  To  be  glorified  is  to  have  our 
highest,  most  heavenly  frames,  pass  over  into  the  out- 
ward life  and  practice,  till  they  become  the  Chris- 
tian's daily  habit,  his  spontaneous  adornment,  and 
grace.  "  Be  ye  transformed,"  says  the  Apostle,  "  by 
the  renewing  of  your  mind."  It  is  the  outward  man 
transfigured  by  the  inward,  taking  the  colorings  of 
the  spirit  within,  and  the  clothings  of  its  light  and 
beauty.  It  is  when  our  moralities  are  not  mere  du- 
ties and  tasks  laid  upon  us,  but  the  outgoings  of  the 
heart  and  reflections  of  its  love-light  alone.  Before 
we  reach  this  we  do  good  and  talk  good  outwardly 
and  by  compulsion  of  law.  Now  the  Christian  changes 
into  the  image  and  likeness  of  his  Saviour,  even  as  the 
shining  ones.  Before  this,  in  the  figure  of  old  Cud- 
worth,  we  are  like  dead  instruments  of  music,  to  be 
played  upon  by  the  musician's  hand.  After  this,  it  is 
as  if  "  the  spirit  of  music  embodied  itself  in  the  in- 
strument and  lived  in  the  strings,  and  made  them  of 
their  own  accord  dance  up  and  down  and  warble  out 
their  harmonies."  And  observe  how  being  glorified 
follows  after  being  justified  ;  how  the  all-beautiful 
law  is  first  laid  upon  us  outwardly  to  be  obeyed  as  a 


264  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

command,  but  afterwards  enters  inwardly  as  our 
life  and  love.  In  the  words  of  Job,  "  I  put  on  right- 
eousness and  it  clothed  me,  and  justice  was  my  robe 
and  diadem." 

These,  then,  are  steps  on  the  stairs  to  heaven. 
Such  is  the  Divine  plan  that  involves  us.  And  you 
see  how  one  stage  follows  on  the  one  before,  and 
grows  out  of  it ;  how  the  Divine  knowledge  that  sees 
all  our  future  in  what  we  are,  weaves  about  us  the 
life-plan  adapted  to  its  end  ;  how  that  brings  us  to 
the  place  where  his  voice  becomes  audible,  and  He 
calls  ;  how  obedience  to  the  call  brings  us  obsequious 
under  the  all-plastic  law  ;  how  this,  from  an  outward 
rule,  becomes  an  inward  and  renewing  life,  till  our 
daily  moralities  reflect  its  light,  and  are  glorified  in 
it.  Such  is  the  perfect  plan  into  which  God  seeks 
to  put  each  one  of  us  ;  into  which  He  does  draw 
every  soul  pliant  enough  for  the  mouldings  of  his 
Providence.  And  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me 
that  the  consciousness  of  being  involved  in  such  a 
plan  as  this  gives  an  indescribable  dignity  to  human 
life,  and  makes  its  meanest  adjuncts,  down  even  to 
the  dust  and  the  straw  we  tread  on,  to  glitter  with  a 
light  which  is  not  their  own  ;  that  the  house  which 
is  the  humblest  and  whose  furniture  is  the  meanest, 
if  only  its  work  come  into  this  plan  and  arrangement, 
borrows  a  lustre  from  above,  and  must  seem  to 
God's  angels  who  look  down  upon  it  as  when  the 
sunlight  blazes  from  cottage  windows.     There  is  no 


THE  DIVINE   LIFE-PLAN.  265 

waste  page,  no  stray  leaf  from  your  book  of  life. 
You  must  see,  if  involved  in  such  a  plan,  how  it  lights 
up  all  your  cares,  hallows  all  your  griefs,  dignifies 
your  most  servile  labors  ;  for  it  takes  them  all  up 
and  unifies  them  in  a  system  that  works  for  immor- 
tal ends.     As  quaint  old  Herbert  says,  — 

"  Who  sweeps  a  room,  if  this  the  end, 
Makes  that  and  the  action  fine." 

When  Columbus  was  on  his  first  voyage  of  dis- 
covery and  was  approaching  the  shores  of  the  New 
World,  he  was  steering  straight  towards  the  Florida 
coast ;  but  at  that  time  a  flock  of  sea-birds  flew  across 
the  track  of  his  vessel.  "  Methinks,"  said  one  of  his 
men,  "  that  here  is  a  sign  from  heaven.  Something 
tells  me  we  ought  to  follow  the  track  of  these  birds." 
Columbus  partook  of  the  same  superstition  and 
turned  his  keel.  In  so  doing  he  turned  in  some  sort 
the  destiny  of  two  continents.  He  turned  the  whole 
course  of  modern  history.  And  if  in  shaping  the 
future  of  a  continent  down  the  long  centuries  in  its 
customs,  laws,  and  language,  there  is  a  Providence 
that  guides  the  sea-birds  in  their  flight,  will  you  not 
believe  that  in  our  personal  history,  as  He  leads  us 
and  ripens  us  for  heaven,  not  a  sparrow  falls  on  the 
ground  without  your  Father  ? 

We  come,  then,  to  a  truth  of  exceeding  interest. 
Men  are  ready  enough  to  acknowledge  in  the  gross 
that  God  has  some  system  of  the  universe  and  takes 


266  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

care  of  it.  Why  will  you  not  see  the  particulars 
which  this  general  truth  involves  ?  If  this  be  so, 
why  will  you  not  see  that  He  has  a  special  plan  for 
each  one  of  you  and  tries  to  keep  you  in  it  ?  Every 
man  by  his  original  make  and  capacity  is  unlike  every 
other  man,  and  needs  therefore  a  training  and  de- 
velopment of  his  own  ;  needs  some  adjustment  of 
circumstances  unlike  every  other  man  ;  so  that  the 
good  which  is  to  be  wrought  out  from  his  condition, 
and  the  character  to  be  formed  from  it,  shall  have  orig- 
inal shapings  and  colorings.  To  be  saved  in  the  full 
meaning  of  that  word  is  not  merely  to  get  to  heaven, 
but  to  have  wrought  out  the  special  end  and  to  have 
formed  in  you  the  individual  excellence  which  God 
made  you  for.  He  has  not  only  his  plan  of  the  uni- 
verse, but  his  plan  of  each  man's  life,  and  from  be- 
hind the  veilings  of  his  Providence  is  leading  him  in 
ways  that  he  does  not  know  ;  giving  him  tempta- 
tions, trials,  crosses,  joys,  and  sorrows,  which  are  all 
his  own.  The  thought  may  startle  us  at  first,  but 
the  inference  is  inevitable  from  our  subject,  that  He 
not  only  marked  out  the  pathway  of  the  worlds,  but 
that  your  path  and  mine  were  sketched  in  the  Book 
of  God  before  we  entered  them. 

II.  But  we  are  not  like  the  things  of  nature  held 
passively  in  the  Divine  plan.  We  can  take  ourselves 
out  of  it  if  we  will.  That  is  to  say,  we  can  renounce 
the  Providence  that  leads  us,  and  place  ourselves  in 
that  which  is  only  sequacious  and  preventive.     One, 


THE  DIVINE  LIFE-PLAN.    .  267 

as  I  said  leads  us  and  urges  us.  The  other  follows 
us.  One  draws,  incloses,  organizes  our  whole  life, 
physical,  spiritual,  and  eternal,  into  its  own  supreme 
order.  But  we  can  renounce  all  this.  We  can  break 
away  from  God's  order  and  try  to  make  one  of  our 
own.  We  can  renounce  his  plan  and  follow  our  own 
self-will.  Shall  not  his  Providence  still  fold  us  in  ? 
Yes,  but  it  is  no  longer  the  Providence  that  goes  be- 
fore and  draws  us  ;  it  is  that  which  goes  behind  and 
looks  after  us.  The  first  entices  us  with  all  heavenly 
attractions.  The  other  follows  on  after  evil,  tempers 
it,  balances  it,  subordinates  it,  and  keeps  it  from  a 
lower  abyss.  The  field  of  the  one  slopes  upward 
into  the  heavens  ;  the  field  of  the  other  slopes  down- 
ward into  the  deeps.  In  the  one,  man  is  an  end  in 
himself,  and  the  Divine  purpose  is  wrought  out  with- 
in him.  In  the  other,  this  end  has  so  far  failed,  and 
man  —  as  in  the  case  of  Pharaoh  —  is  degraded  into 
a  means  and  instrument  of  something  else.  In  the 
one,  the  Divine  Providence  confers  the  greatest  pos- 
sible good  ;  in  the  other,  it  prevents  the  greatest 
possible  ill.  The  directing  Providence  draws  him 
who  tries  to  climb  upward,  engirds  him  with  invisible 
helps,  makes  his  foot  firm  on  every  stair  where  he 
plants  it,  till  he  stands  on  the  serene  summits  at  last. 
The  preventive  Providence  still  places  an  arm  under 
every  man  that  falls  ;  breaks  his  fall,  and  lets  him 
down  the  abyss  with  the  least  of  wounding  and  lac- 
eration, for  there  is  no  malignity  in  the  punishments 


268  SERMONS  AND  SONGS 

of  God.  So  the  Psalmist,  "  If  I  ascend  into  heaven, 
thou  art  there.  If  I  descend  and  make  my  bed  in 
hell,  behold  thou  art  there." 

I  hope  the  distinction  is  plain,  but  I  illustrate. 
Some  years  ago  a  vessel  went  to  the  South  Sea  Isl- 
ands with  a  Methodist  missionary  who  felt  impelled 
by  a  Divine  urgency.  He  carried  the  good  news  of 
Christ  to  a  people  who  lived  by  murder  and  ate 
human  flesh.  By  incredible  perseverance  and  sacri- 
fice, he  gained  many  of  them,  and  they  were  changed 
into  Christian  men  and  women.  There  was  another 
vessel  that  sailed  to  the  Guinea  coast  where  the  crew 
landed  to  burn  negro  villages  and  capture  slaves,  and 
they  opened  the  slave-trade  which  has  been  kept 
open  till  now.  I  suppose  you  will  agree  that  the  Di- 
vine Providence  did  draw  the  good  James  Calvert 
into  his  work  and  worked  with  him,  and  was  a  guard 
of  fire  about  him  in  his  perils  and  sufferings  till  the 
curses  of  cruel  men  were  changed  to  sweet  and  tender 
songs.  And  you  will  agree,  I  think,  that  the  Divine 
Providence  did  not  urge  John  Hawkins  to  his  work 
of  man-stealing,  yet  followed  him  in  the  bloody  track 
and  blackened  wastes  which  he  left,  to  bring  all  pos- 
sible good  out  of  ill  ;  to  temper  evil ;  to  subordinate 
crime  ;  and  to  make  the  tophet  of  slavery  work  at 
last  in  the  redemption  of  a  race. 

Such  is  the  twofold  Providence.  On  one  side  the 
view  opens  upward  to  the  foot  of  the  throne  ;  on  the 
other  downward  out  of  sight.     Its  golden  links  in- 


THE  DIVINE  LIFE-PLAN.  269 

volve  us  if  we  will  yield  to  them,  and  then  they  are 
sure  to  draw  us  upward  to  the  blest  abodes. 

If  my  subject  has  come  home  to  you,  it  has 
prompted  a  very  practical  inquiry.  Where  in  this 
twofold  Providence  am  I  included  and  involved  ;  in 
the  one  which  directs  and  draws  me  on,  or  that  which 
only  follows  and  mitigates  ?  that  which  pulls  us  up  the 
heavenly  stairs,  or  that  which  only  lets  us  down  the 
easiest  way  through  the  lapses  of  sin  ?  These  ques- 
tions can  be  Easily  answered,  and  let  me  go  on  now 
and  seek  the  tests  by  which  we  can  answer  them 
candidly  and  fairly  to  ourselves. 

1.  If  we  are  indeed  in  the  foldings  of  the  Provi- 
dence that  directs  and  urges,  we  shall  be  very  likely 
to  invoke  it,  study  its  signs  and  manifestations,  and 
be  on  the  watch  for  its  leadings.  I  do  not  mean 
that  it  will  break  into  our  life-plan  openly,  for  then 
it  would  overwhelm  us  with  its  splendors.  But  no 
man  who  looks  up  daily  with  the  prayer,  "  Lord,  what 
wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  ?  "  is  left  very  long  without 
an  answer.  How  very  different  it  is  with  godless 
and  worldly  men  ;  how  they  keep  plunging  on  and 
on,  with  no  other  guidance  than  their  own  self-will ; 
and  hence  so  much  of  the  hurry  and  fever  and 
scramble  in  the  race  of  life.  Hence  the  alternate 
elations  of  success,  or  depressions  of  disappointment, 
or  anxieties  and  bodings  of  disaster,  by  those  who 
never  allow  those  pauses  in  their  affairs,  when  in  the 


27O  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

hush  of  the  hour  the  Divine  voice  could  be  heard,  and 
the  Divine  tokens  could  be  clearly  seen.  It  is  said 
that,  as  a  people,  none  are  subject  to  so  many  acci- 
dents and  surprises  as  we.  If  it  be  so,  it  is  because 
we  have  less  of  this  hush  and  listening  for  the  Di- 
vine leadings,  but  have  blotted  out  the  word  Provi- 
dence and  written  "  luck  "  in  the  place  of  it,  and  so 
the  door  is  left  wide  open  for  all  the  devils  of  con- 
fusion to  come  in.  It  is  a  most  instructive  fact,  that 
the  men  around  whom  events  seem  to  -marshal 
themselves  and  conspire  together  to*  one  end,  are 
men  who  have  been  in  the  habit  of  looking  for  and 
following  a  Divine  lead,  till  finally  it  comes  to  them 
almost  consciously,  transfused  through  their  very 
intuitions,  and  the  Divine  calm  comes  down  upon 
them  and  lies  about  them,  where  the  confusion  and 
the  surprises  cannot  enter.  Indeed,  the  more  we 
seek  these  Divine  leadings,  the  more  they  will  draw 
us  up  into  the  Divine  counsels,  so  that  under  the 
shadow  of  that  Rock  which  is  higher  than  we,  we 
can  watch  the  motions  of  the  tides  and  the  dashing 
of  the  waves,  and  feel  secure  with  our  finite  reason, 
folded  in  the  Omniscience  of  God. 

2.  Again,  if  we  are  involved  in  that  Providence 
which  leads  and  directs,  it  will  shape  all  our  concep- 
tions of  the  discipline  of  life.  For  I  suppose  all  per- 
sons come  to  look  upon  this  world  either  as  mere 
pleasure-ground,  or  as  a  school  where  immortal  be- 
ings are  educated   for  the    skies.     How  differently 


THE  DIVINE   LIFE-PLAN.  2J\ 

from  these  two  stand-points  will  they  interpret  all 
the  events  of  their  probation  !  From  the  one  the 
question  always  is,  How  do  they  affect  my  enjoy- 
ments ?  From  the  other  the  question  always  will 
be,  How  are  they  affecting  my  manhood  or  woman- 
hood, and  my  attainments  for  immortality  ?  How 
different  seem  our  crosses,  trials,  and  failures,  from 
these  opposite  points  of  view !  From  one  they  are 
so  much  dead  loss,  so  much  abstracted  from  our 
pleasures.  From  the  other  they  fit  in  and  harmo- 
nize in  the  frame  of  our  history,  and  make  a  single 
mosaic  where  we  love  to  trace  the  finger  of  our  God. 
Regard  life  as  a  school  and  you  soon  come  to  ask 
the  meaning  of  all  its  environments  even  where  they 
touch  you  most  painfully.  "  How  did  I  need  this, 
and  what  is  the  message  which  it  brings  to  me  ? 
How  does  it  fit  to  my  inner  life,  and  what  is  the 
good  I  am  to  extract  from  it  ? "  Even  the  great 
sorrows  that  come  over  us  like  a  cloud,  will  not  be 
black  with  the  wrath  of  God,  but  they  will  rather 
come  with  those  soft  droppings  of  the  rain,  under 
which  we  are  sure  the  tender  blade  will  shoot  forth, 
and  the  greenness  of  another  spring. 

3.  There  is  another  test,  and  a  very  definite  one. 
What  the  Apostle  terms  the  Divine  call,  comes  to 
every  man  somewhere  in  the  unfolding  plan  of  his 
life.  Yea,  God  prearranges  and  preorders  our  life- 
plan,  so  that  this  call  shall  somewhere  be  very  dis- 
tinct and  audible.     It  is  true,  no  man  ever  gets  quite 


2J2  SERMOXS  AXD  SONGS. 

out  of  the  hearing  of  it,  though  the  Divine  voice  is 
muffled  and  obscured  in  the  whirl  of  our  interests 
and  passions.  But  how,  clear  as  matin-bells,  it 
sounds  through  the  young  conscience  as  yet  un- 
spotted from  the  world  !  How  sharp  and  pungent 
are  its  urgencies  where  the  young  man  or  young 
woman  stands  at  the  parting  of  the  ways !  free  to 
choose  the  whole  business  and  work  of  this  earthly 
probation  ;  free  to  make  this  world  a  mere  field  of 
pleasure  or  a  field  of  discipline,  where  all  the  facul- 
ties are  trained  for  humane  or  divine  employments. 
Here  it  is  that  vows  of  obedience  and  self-consecra- 
tion, distinctly  taken  and  recorded  in  the  Book  of 
life,  put  you  in  the  Divine  plan  ;  so  sure  to  draw  you 
up  the  heavenly  stairs,  that  the  old  theologies  name 
it  by  such  words  as  "  effectual  calling,"  "  irresistible 
grace,"  and  "  Divine  decrees."  Indeed,  they  very 
well  might  ;  for  think  what  ministries  watch  over 
you  and  wait  round  you  when  once  such  a  vow  has 
been  decisively  made  and  recorded  on  high.  Then 
the  Providence  that  leads  and  draws  is  ever  with 
you,  for  all  the  happenings  of  your  probation  are  so 
toned  and  organized  as  to  help  you  on.  For  as  the 
Apostle  puts  it,  the  invisible  heavens  then  close 
round  you  to  get  the  victory  for  you,  and  in  his  list 
of  co-workers  he  places  life,  death,  angels,  princi- 
palities, height,  depth,  things  present,  and  things  to 
come.  All  these  become  yours.  And  how  great 
is  the  sin  and  the  shame  if,  when  such    ministries 


THE  DIVINE  LIFE-PLAN.  273 

watch  round  us  and  wait  to  enfold  us,  we  break  out 
from  their  charmed  circle  to  where  no  Providence 
can  lead  us,  but  only  follow  after  us  ;  not  to  give  us 
his  best,  but  only  keep  us  from  our  worst  in  the 
gulfs  of  ruin. 

These  tests  are  very  simple  ones.  I  think  they 
are  very  decisive,  and  I  have  tried  to  make  this  dis- 
tinction in  the  twofold  Providence  of  God  sharp 
and  clear,  because  we  are  so  apt  to  slide  into  the 
world's  cant  which  is  only  a  pernicious  fatalism  mak- 
ing "  all  things  for  the  best."  They  are  for  the  best 
when  we  put  ourselves  within  the  grapplings  of  the 
golden  links  by  which  He  draws  us.  They  are  the 
best  when  we  have  given  up  our  plan  for  his.  Then 
how  blessed  it  is  to  live!  for  that  majestic  repose 
called  the  "  peace  of  God  "  will  be  ours.  Our  con- 
sciousness will  grow  brighter  and  more  profound, 
that  we  are  living  in  God's  life-plan,  not  ours,  and 
that  we  are  drawn  into  the  central  calm  of  the 
world's  confusions  where  we  hear  tidings  of  invisi- 
ble things,  — 

"  Of  ebb  and  flow  and  ever-during  power, 
And  central  peace  subsisting  at  the  heart 
Of  endless  agitation." 
18 


ABOVE   THE  STORMS. 

Above  the  storms  and  thunder-jars 
That  shake  the  eddying  air, 

Away  beneath  the  naked  stars, 
Rises  the  Mount  of  Prayer. 

The  cumbering  bars  of  mortal  life 

Here  break  and  fall  away, 
And  the  harsh  noise  of  human  strife 

Comes  never  :     Let  us  pray  ! 

Father,  may  thy  serener  light 

Reveal  my  nature  true, 
And  all  its  pages,  dark  and  bright, 

Lie  open  to  my  view. 

I  've  mingled  in  the  battle-din, 
That  shakes  the  plains  below, 

And  passions  born  of  earth  and  sin 
Have  left  their  stains,  I  know. 

How  silent  move  thy  chariot  wheels 
Along  our  camping  ground, 

Whose  thickly  folding  smoke  conceals 
Thy  camp  of  fire  around  ! 


Are  brave  amid  its  calm  ; 
And  when  the  fearful  fight  is  o'er 
We  snatch  thy  victor-palm. 


276      •  SERMOA'S  AND  SOXGS. 

On  surface  knowledge  we  have  fed, 
And  missed  the  golden  grain  ; 

And  now  I  come  to  Thee  for  bread 
To  sate  this  hunger-pain. 

No  gift  I  bring,  nor  knowledge  fine, 

Nor  trophies  of  my  own  ; 
I  come  to  lay  my  heart  in  thine, 

O   Lamb  amid  the  throne  ! 

All  that  the  Father  hath  is  thine,  — 
Thus  does  thy  word  declare,  — 

So  the  full  stream  of  life  divine 
Flows  from  the  Godhead  there. 

The  tree  of  Life,  in  mystic  rows, 

Stands  in  eternal  green  ; 
Out  from  the  throne  the  River  flows 

In  crystal  waves  between. 

Ambrosial  fruits  hang  o'er  the  waves 
That  pour  their  cleansing  flood  ; 

Thy  Fount  of  Love  the  heart  that  laves, 
And  fills  with  royal  good. 

That  good  I  seek,  yet  not  alone 
The  hungered  heart  to  fill, 

But  as  the  angel  nigh  the  throne 
Made  swift  to  do  thy  will  ; 

Thy  will,  unmingled,  Lord,  with  mine, 
That  makes  all  service  sweet, 

And  charged  with  messages  divine, 
Puts  wings  upon  my  feet. 


ABOVE    THE  STORM. 

No  need  to  trim  my  taper's  blaze, 
No  need  of  sun  or  moon  ! 

The  glories  falling  from  thy  face 
Make  my  unchanging  noon. 


277 


XVII. 

HOME. 

Luke  xv.  20.  And  he  arose  and  ca?ne  to  his  Father.  But 
when  he  was  a  great  way  off,  his  Father  saw  him,  and  ran 
and  fell  on  his  neck  and  kissed  him. 

THIS  portion  of  Scripture  is  generally  called 
the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son.  I  very  much 
doubt,  however,  whether  we  are  to  take  it  as  ficti- 
tious narrative.  We  find  in  the  Gospels  two  kinds 
of  parables.  One  kind  is  drawn  from  the  processes 
of  nature,  such  as  Matthew  and  Mark  report  — 
the  lilies  of  the  field,  the  leaven,  the  wheat  and 
the  tares.  Another  kind  is  drawn  from  transcripts 
of  human  life,  such  as  the  good  Samaritan,  and 
the  prodigal  son,  and  these  might  have  been  both 
history  and  parable.  They  may  have  been  such 
narratives  of  fact  as  had  come  to  our  Saviour's 
knowledge ;  and  this  may  have  given  a  directness 
and  pungency  to  his  teachings  and  their  applica- 
tion. There  seems  little  doubt  that  the  story  of 
the  good  Samaritan  was  a  narrative  of  this  kind, 
and  we  see  at  once  how  straightway  it  went  to  the 
conscience  of  the  priests  of  the  temple  who  came 
to   listen   and    cavil.     The    story   of   the   two    sons 


28o  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

reads  much  like  history,  —  one  of  them  very  correct 
and  moral,  but  proud,  selfish,  and  cold-hearted ; 
the  other  profligate  and  generous  to  a  fault,  but 
more  quickly  convinced  of  his  fault  and  more  easily 
brought  into  affectionate  and  child-like  obedience. 
The  Jewish  and  the  Gentile  believer  are  here 
strongly  typified,  and  the  story  is  put  home  to  the 
Jewish  conscience  encased  in  its  bigotry  and  pride. 

In  the  times  of  our  Saviour  there  was  one  for- 
eign city  where  a  young  Jew  would  resort  to  perfect 
his  accomplishments  by  foreign  travel  and  knowl- 
edge of  the  world.  It  was  Rome,  drunk  with  her 
abominations,  gone  down  in  sensuality,  and  glaring 
in  false  splendor.  If  our  young  hero  went  by  way 
of  Greece  he  probably  would  have  spent  his  living 
there  already  without  seeing  Rome.  There  was 
enough  at  Corinth  of  lust  and  profligacy  to  absorb 
his  substance.  There  were  swine-herds  in  the 
country  to  give  him  employment ;  and  it  was  re- 
garded as  the  lowest  business  a  man  could  engage 
in.  Starved,  and  beggared,  and  in  rags,  he  finds  his 
way  back  to  Judea  —  his  pride  all  broken  down, 
and  doubtful  as  to  how  he  will  be  received.  Some- 
thing like  this  is  the  family  history,  a  chapter  of 
which  our  Saviour  has  extracted  to  turn  it  into 
parable  and  hang  on  it  the  Divine  truths  of  his  re- 
ligion. They  are  all  there,  —  every  one  of  the  es- 
sential truths  of  Christianity  has  here  its  image  and 
setting,  and  in  language  ever  dear  to  human  affec- 


HOME.  28l 

tions.  Without  trying  to  exhaust  the  meaning  of 
the  parable,  or  draw  out  all  the  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity which  cluster  about  the  narrative,  we  will  at- 
tend to  one  practical  lesson  which  appeals  to  us  with 
special  urgency.  It  is  the  power  and  influence  of 
Home  in  the  moulding  of  the  character,  and  even 
the  regeneration  of  the  whole  spiritual  nature.  Its 
direct  influence  we  are  ready  enough  to  acknowl- 
edge ;  its  indirect,  unconscious,  all-abiding  influ- 
ence, we  are  somewhat  slower  in  perceiving.  Our 
young  Jewish  traveller  has  forgotten  home  for 
a  while  amid  the  revelry,  we  will  suppose,  of  some 
Grecian  city.  At  Corinth,  lust  was  even  enthroned 
and  worshipped,  and  temples  were  built  and  dedi- 
cated to  sensual  pleasure,  and  in  the  midst  of  these 
debaucheries  all  the  purer  and  sweeter  memories 
of  his  childhood  are  drowned  and  lost.  But  his 
substance  gone,  and  naked  and  starving  among  the 
swine-herds,  there  is  one  spot  that  looms  up  like 
a  brilliant  star  away  over  the  sea  and  over  the 
hills,  and  calls  him  to  a  better  life.  It  was  not 
some  exhortation  to  virtue  from  a  Greek  moralist 
that  brought  him  to  repentance  ;  it  was  not  the 
memory  of  some  sermon  he  had  heard  in  the  syna- 
gogue ;  it  was  the  awakening  of  home  memories, 
and  they  came  so  persuasively  that  he  takes  the  re- 
solve at  once,  "  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  Father." 
And  what  was  the  magic  of  these  home  memories  ? 
There   are   a    great   many   kinds    of   homes,  but 


282  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

for  the  most  part  they  may  be  ranged  in  four 
classes.  There  are  places  where  people  simply  in- 
habit under  the  same  roof  for  the  purpose  of  eating 
and  drinking  and  sleeping.  They  have  no  other 
end  but  to  procure  for  themselves,  in  the  most  con- 
venient way,  food  and  raiment  and  lodging,  and 
that  done,  the  end  is  secured.  Getting  a  living  only 
means  getting  enough  to  eat,  drink,  wear,  and  in- 
habit, and  for  this  purpose  there  must  be  some 
place  to  lodge  nights  and  keep  comfortable.  That 
is  one  kind  of  home.  There  is  another  kind.  There 
are  homes  which  are  places  of  instruction  and  dis- 
cipline ;  where  getting  a  living  is  a  means  to  this 
discipline ;  where  example  and  precept  are  both 
used  for  the  training  of  children  in  the  way  they 
should  go  ;  places  of  education  for  the  coming  re- 
sponsibilities and  business  of  the  world.  It  may 
include  religious  instruction,  discipline,  and  example. 
Then  home  becomes  a  primary  school  where  suc- 
cessive generations  are  prepared  for  the  duties  of 
life.  That  is  another  kind  of  home.  Again,  there 
are  homes  where  the  affections  of  the  heart  are 
lavished,  where  each  lives  in  all  the  rest,  and  all  live 
in  each  ;  where  each  finds  his  own  nature  com- 
plemented and  supplied  in  its  lackings  and  short- 
comings, and  where  the  relations  of  husband  and 
wife,  and  parent  and  child,  and  brother  and  sister, 
are  lines  of  communication  for  mutual  help,  and 
for  the  sunshine  of  the  heart  to  flash  over  them. 


HOME.  283 

So  there  are  places  to  lodge  in,  places  of  dis- 
cipline, places  for  mutual  love ;  and  there  is  almost 
always  a  kind  of  unity  which  belongs  to  every  one 
of  those  little  societies  which  we  call  families. 
The  members  get  moulded,  consciously  or  not,  by 
the  general  spirit  which  pervades  a  household  and 
keeps  it  together.  If  it  be  only  to  supply  the  ani- 
mal wants,  if  that  is  the  main  thing  which  gives 
unity  to  the  house,  it  will  be  very  hard  for  any 
member  of  it  to  escape  the  coarseness  and  the 
touch  of  animality  affecting  the  taste,  the  style  of 
thought,  and  the  style  of  character.  The  children 
will  breathe  it  in,  and  they  cannot  help  it.  People 
may  seek  to  cover  over  this  coarseness  with  paint 
and  finery,  and  pictures  and  culture ;  but  behind 
them  all  there  will  be  the  moral  squalor  that  can- 
not be  concealed,  and  there  will  be  a  taint  of  earth- 
liness  in  the  whole  atmosphere  of  the  house,  which 
no  ventilation  from  open  doors  and  windows  can 
ever  drive  out.  Or  again,  if  instruction  and  disci- 
pline and  example  are  supplied,  and  these  are  all, 
and  give  their  tone  and  spirit  to  the  household,  the 
atmosphere  of  the  house  will  be  cold  and  chilling, 
and  lack  sunshine.  Even  a  good  example,  when 
cut  to  order,  has  no  magnetism  in  it.  A  school  is 
a  very  good  place  in  its  way,  but  a  school  is  not 
home  and  is  not  society. 

Or  again,  if  family  affections  and  mutual  helps  are 
all  that  give  unity  to  the  house,  the  family  becomes 


284  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

a  smaller  clan  for  building  each  other  up,  living 
in  each  other,  but  living  in  nobody  else ;  and  so 
the  atmosphere  of  the  house  may  be  heart-warm, 
but  it  is  the  warmth  of  self-love  reflected  back  and 
intensified.  Indeed,  I  do  not  think  there  is  any 
form  of  human  selfishness  that  grows  into  shapes 
so  stupendous,  and  at  the  same  time  so  deceptive 
and  imposing,  as  that  which  is  nourished  by  these 
family  affections  left  merely  in  their  natural  state, 
and  with  no  higher  inspiration  to  give  them  soul, 
expansion,  and  guidance.  Even  the  forms  of  charity 
and  religion  may  be  only  the  outside  decorations 
of  family  show,  and  the  sweet  offices  of  domestic 
love  may  be  only  the  natural  instinct  of  the  heart, 
blind  to  everything  that  transcends  the  narrow 
sphere  of  family  interest  and  pride. 

So,  then,  there  is  still  another  kind  of  home  —  one 
which  takes  up  what  is  good  in  these  three  and 
supplies  something  more.  Put  all  these  three  to- 
gether,—  a  place  to  lodge  in,  a  place  of  discipline, 
and  a  place  of  family  affections,  and  something  else. 
Make  it  a  seminary  for  immortal  beings  to  be 
trained  and  prepared  for  an  endless  existence ;  not 
only  to  do  business  in  this .  world  and  do  it  well, 
but  for  the  highest  duties  and  employments  of 
any  world,  whether  on  this  side  of  the  River,  or 
on  the  other  side,  for  it  makes  no  difference.  A 
good  life  here  is  the  same  as  a  good  life  anywhere ; 
for  to  do  our  work  on  earth  and  do  it  well,  is  to 


HOME.  285 

bring  into  full  employ  the  powers  of  mind  and  heart 
which  are  put  into  the  employments  of  heaven  it- 
self. Suppose  this  conception  of  home  to  rule  it 
and  give  it  unity,  the  mind  and  character  of  all  in 
it  will  be  formed  in  yet  higher  mouldings.  Then 
there  is  another  Being  who  will  dwell  there.  Then 
even  the  drudgeries  of  life  lose  all  their  coarseness, 
because  their  end  and  purpose  are  to  get  the  foot- 
hold and  foundation  for  the  education  of  immortal 
minds.  Christ  will  be  in  it  and  fill  out  all  its  busi- 
ness with  his  own  Spirit  of  grace  and  love.  Ex- 
ample will  not  be  a  pattern  of  conduct  cut  to  order 
and  exhibited  before  children  for  them  to  look  at. 
Example  will  be  the  spontaneous  outbreathings  of 
the  Spirit  of  Christ,  always  the  same,  whether  the 
children  are  in  hearing  or  not  —  even  as  the  rose 
always  gives  out  its  fragrance  and  beauty,  though 
nobody  is  passing  by.  Discipline  will  lose  all  its 
hardness,  though  none  of  its  firmness,  for  it  will  be 
the  loving  tractations  of  a  hand  guided  by  gentle- 
ness, of  a  spirit  which  has  the  Divine  patience 
breathed  into  it.  The  family  will  not  only  be  'a 
school,  but  a  society  where  minds  and  hearts  open 
into  each  other,  in  order  that  each  may  find  what 
is  wanting  in  himself,  and  in  order  that  the  faults 
of  each  may  find  their  rebuking  and  repression  in 
the  atmosphere  of  truth  and  affection  that  per- 
vades the  house  and  fills  it. 

And  family  affection  loses  all  its  clanship  when 


286  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

the  Christ  is  in  it,  because  the  love  of  kindred  en- 
larges to  a  love  of  kind  ;  yea,  the  more  you  love  your 
own  household,  the  more  just  and  loving  and  for- 
bearing will  you  be  towards  other  households  ;  for 
you  will  see  more  keenly  and  know  more  perfectly 
all  the  tender  and  sore  places  where  the  world  chafes 
against  the  sensibilities  of  other  people,  and  how  its 
wrongs  affect  them  in  their  dearest  and  tenderest 
relations.  The  great  reformers  and  philanthropists 
have  generally  been  those  whose  philanthropy  has 
been  kindled  at  home,  who  have  enlarged  the  ties  of 
kindred  into  those  of  kind,  and  learned  in  the  broth- 
erhood of  the  family  the  brotherhood  of  the  race, 
and  how  grievous  are  the  sins  and  woes  by  which 
its  ties  are  cankered  or  wounded.  Every  new  birth 
in  the  household  now  becomes  sacred,  for  every 
babe  that  enters  it  is  the  fresh  bud  of  immortal  be- 
ing, and  baptism  assumes  all  its  beauty  and  signifi- 
cance. Indeed,  the  baptismal  rite  is  as  full  of  mean- 
ing as  the  funeral  rite,  for  it  takes  the  little  being 
out  of  the  category  of  mere  animal  existence,  and 
receives  him  from  the  Great  Giver  as  an  heir  of  im- 
mortality. When  friends  go  out  of  the  world,  we 
dismiss  them  with  rites  recognizing  their  spiritual 
nature,  putting  in  our  hopes  of  their  hereafter. 
How  fitting,  quite  as  much,  that  the  new-comers  into 
this  world  should  be  welcomed  with  rites  which 
symbolize  their  spiritual  being, —  buds  to  be  opened 
into  immortal  flower.     Maternal  love  becomes  some- 


HOME.  287 

thins:  more  than  blind  instinctive  affection,  for  it  is 
enlightened,  guided,  and  inspired  by  another  love, 
pure  as  an  angel's,  and  giving  to  it  an  angel's  uncon- 
querable strength.  Prayer  and  family  devotion  be- 
come more  than  a  set  form  and  prescribed  duty  ;  for 
a  family  so  unified,  and  organized  for  such  an  end, 
becomes  a  society  on  earth,  brought  into  alliance  and 
correspondency  with  the  blest  societies  above  ;  its 
life  is  their  life,  their  spirit  is  one  and  their  worship 
is  one,  and  family  prayer  is  the  open  door  through 
which  the  invisible  messengers  come  and  go,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  descends.  The  world  itself  has  recog- 
nized the  fact  that  about  some  families  there  is  an 
invisible  guard  which  their  philosophy  has  not  been 
able  to  account  for.  The  home  so  organized,  and 
for  such  an  end,  subordinating  all  its  employments 
thereto,  has  a  unity  of  its  own.  It  will  have  its  sor- 
rows, its  trials,  its  bereavements,  its  chafings  and 
corrosions,  but  the  one  spirit  and  end  hallow  them 
all,  and  turn  them  to  some  account  in  the  Divine 
economy  ;  and  amid  all  the  darkness  of  this  world 
there  will  be  a  light  in  the  house  and  all  around  it, 
as  when  cottage  windows  are  ablaze  to  the  distant 
traveller  and  cheer  him  on  his  way. 

The  influence  of  a  home  like  this  cannot  be  meas- 
ured by  any  visible  and  palpable  results.  Its  influ- 
ences are  not  merely  restraining,  but  regenerating ; 
for  they  store  up  a  host  of  memories  and  associa- 
tions which,  though  buried  for  years  under  worldli- 


288  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

ness  and  depravity,  will  wake  up  afterwards,  and 
sometimes  fill  the  whole  soul  as  with  the  chime  of 
angel-voices.  They  are  the  very  things  stored  up 
and  kept  secure,  which  the  Holy  Spirit  afterwards 
takes  hold  of  and  uses  for  the  conversion  and  re- 
generation of  the  soul.  I  doubt  whether  any  soul 
is  ever  lost  whose  advent  into  this  world  is  through 
a  good  home.  It  is  seldom  that  there  is  any  falling 
away  from  it  ;  but  even  if  there  is,  the  coming  back 
will  be  through  the  language  which  time  may  have 
obscured  and  covered  over,  but  whose  letters  blaze 
out  anew  when,  by  trial,  by  sorrow,  or  by  repentance, 
the  obscuring  veil  has  been  withdrawn. 

There  was  another  son  which  history  tells  us  of, 
who  did  not  go  to  Corinth,  but  away  down  into  Egypt, 
to  be  surrounded  also  with  seductions  to  sin,  and 
with  the  trials  of  evil  fortune.  But  he  resisted  the 
temptations,  and  turned  the  trials  into  moral  victo- 
ries so  brilliant  that  they  shine  down  through  all  the 
ages.  And  whence  came  the  strength  that  girded 
him  and  held  him  up  ?  Why,  there  was  a  home 
away  up  in  Judea,  where  not  only  the  love  of  parents, 
but  the  love  and  fear  of  the  Lord,  had  been  stored  up 
and  kept  in  the  most  tender  places  of  the  heart ;  and 
this  was  what  the  Lord  Himself  laid  hold  of,  not 
only  to  save  the  boy,  but  to  save  a  whole  nation 
from  extinguishment. 

The  family  is  a  Divine  Institution,  and  there  is  no 
substitute  for  it.     It  is  older  than  any  other  insti- 


HOME.  289 

tution.  Every  one  of  you,  by  Divine  appointment, 
is  a  member  of  it.  It  is  older  than  the  State,  older 
than  the  Church,  older  than  Universities,  and  the 
parental  line  is  more  sacred  than  that  of  any  Apos- 
tolic Succession,  and  goes  up  higher  and  away  be- 
yond it.  The  Christian  duties  which  pertain  to  it 
you  cannot  delegate  to  anybody  else,  and  by  no  in- 
genuity can  you  find  anything  that  will  supply  their 
place.  You  cannot  send  the  children  to  Christ,  but 
you  may  lead  them  along  and  draw  them  after  you. 
The  home  lies  back  of  the  Sunday  School,  and  its 
teachings  run  through  six  days  and  all  the  twenty- , 
four  hours,  and  the  tide  of  interest  in  the  school 
rises  and  sinks  with  the  life  in  the  homes  that  in- 
spire it  and  throb  through  it.  You  may  give  the 
children  books  to  read  ;  your  own  book  of  life  they 
are  reading  all  the  while,  perhaps  more  thoroughly 
than  you  are  aware  of,  for  their  clear  innocent  gaze 
will  take  in  the  very  lines  and  chapters  which  you 
may  think  are  most  obscure.  The  unconscious  in- 
fluences of  home,  those  which  come  from  little 
things,  little  speeches,  little  deeds,  and  little  offices, 
"that  best  portion  of  a  good  man's  life,  his  little 
nameless  unremembered  acts  of  kindness  and  of 
love,"  are  more  subtile  and  pervading  and  plastic 
over  the  character,  than  the  teachings  which  we  set 
ourselves  formally  to  make.  For  it  is  not  merely 
from  what  we  say  or  what  we  do,  but  how  we  say  it 
and  how  we  do  it,  and  in  what  spirit  and  temper, 
19 


29O  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

that  the  life  of  our  life  comes  out  and  shows  its 
quality.  You  may  shape  the  young  lips  to  prayer, 
but  the  young  eyes  will  see  whether  your  life  is  a 
prayer  and  an  aspiration  towards  heavenly  things. 
You  may  give  them  hymns  to  learn,  but  it  will  come- 
to  nothing  if  the  music  is  drowned  in  the  discords 
of  earthly  passions  and  the  din  of  this  world.  We 
may  teach  them  here  the  Saviour's  "  Come  unto 
me  ; "  we  work  against  mighty  odds  if  they  see  you 
either  going  the  other  way  or  halting  and  standing 
still.  And  there  comes  a  time,  a  very  solemn  time, 
when  the  home  breaks  up  and  forms  anew ;  not  only 
the  cradles  are  brought  in,  but  the  coffins  are  car- 
ried out,  and  there  is  to  be  sorrow  and  mourning, 
and  heaven  is  to  be  seen  through  tears.  And  you 
are  to  live  in  this  world  long  after  you  have  left  it,  — 
live  in  the  memories  you  leave  behind  you,  memo- 
ries which  may  be  a  long  and  sweet  persuasive  to 
things  which  are  pure  and  lovely  and  of  good  re- 
port ;  yea,  the  very  chairs  where  you  sat,  and  the 
pictures  on  the  walls,  and  the  old  blessed  Bible  that 
lies  on  the  stand,  shall  speak  long  afterward  and  call 
others  to  Christ  in  more  tender  accents,  if  only  now 
you  will  fill  the  house  where  you  live  with  the  fra- 
grancy  of  a  Christian  life.  But  for  this  Christ  must 
come  into  the  house  now  to  be  learned  there  and 
taught  there,  and  lived  there,  and  He  must  shape 
the  very  end  and  purpose  for  which  all  its  business 
goes  on  and  all  its  burdens  are  borne,  even  to  make 
the  home  on  earth  a  seminary  for  the  skies. 


HOME.  29 1 

The  subject  has  a  broad  and  forcible  bearing  upon 
every  one  ;  for  who  is  there  that  has  not  wandered 
away  from  the  house  of  the  heavenly  Father,  and 
wasted  the  substance  He  has  given  ;  these  powers 
of  mind  and  heart,  these  means  and  opportunities 
being  unused  or  misused,  instead  of  being  conse- 
crated to  the  ends  for  which  He  gave  them.  And 
are  there  none  of  you  in  that  land  of  want  and  fam- 
ine who  have  yet  to  put  forth  decisively  the  power 
of  choice,  in  that  high  resolve,  "  I  will  arise  and  go 
to  my  Father  ? "  And  are  there  no  voices  that  call 
thee  back,  no  remembered  tones  of  a  Father's  spirit 
that  has  been  grieved  away  ;  no  remorse  for  per- 
verted, or  wasted,  or  slumbering  powers  ;  no  fading 
ideals  of  a  purity  and  innocence  that  make  thee  sigh 
for  peace  with  God  and  rest  in  his  atonement  ;  no 
images  that  throng  down  from  the  hills  of  life's 
morning  land  and  make  thee  long  to  be  a  child 
again  in  thy  Father's  home  ?  like  the  man,  who,  re- 
posing on  the  field  of  strife  during  the  truce  of  bat- 
tle, went  back  in  his  visions  to  the  scene  of  his 
early  innocence,  — 

"  And  knew  a  sweet  strain  that  the  corn-reapers  sung." 


"  FEED   MY  LAMBS." 

Ho  !  ye  that  rest  beneath  the  Rock 

On  pastures  greenly  growing, 
Or  roam  at  will,  Christ's  favored  flock, 

By  waters  gently  flowing  : 

Hear  ye  upon  the  desert  air 

A  voice  of  woe  come  crying  ! 
While  cold  upon  the  barren  moor 

Christ's  little  lambs  are  dying. 

"  Go  feed  my  lambs  !  "  —  the  Shepherd's  call 
Comes  down  from  realms  of  glory. 

"  Go  feed  my  lambs  !  and  bring  them  all 
From  moor  and  mountain  hoary." 

Fast  falls  the  night,  the  bleak  winds  blow 

Across  the  desert  dreary  ! 
Great  Shepherd  !  — at  thy  call  we  '11  go 

And  bring  the  wanderers  weary. 


VESPER   HYMN. 

BY   ELIZA    SCUDDER. 

The  day  is  done,  the  weary  day  of  thought  and  toil  is  past, 
Soft  falls  the  twilight  cool  and  gray  on  the  tired  earth  at  last ; 
By  wisest  teachers  wearied,  by  gentlest  friends  oppressed, 
In  thee  alone,  the  soul  outworn,  refreshment  finds  and  rest. 

Bend,  Gracious  Spirit,  from  above  like  these  o'erarching  skies, 
And  to  thy  firmament  of  Love  lift  up  these  longing  eyes  ; 
And  folded  by  thy  sheltering  Hand  in  refuge  still  and  deep, 
Let  blessed  thoughts  from  thee  descend  as  drop  the  dews  of 
sleep. 

And  when  refreshed  the  soul  once  more  puts  on  new  life  and 
power, 

0  let   thine  image,  Lord,  alone  gild  the  first  waking  hour  ! 
Let  that  dear  Presence  dawn  and  glow  fairer  than  Morn's  first 

ray, 
And  thy  pure  radiance  overflow  the  splendor  of  the  day. 

So  in  the  hastening  even,  so  in  the  coming  morn, 

When  deeper  slumber  shall  be  given  and  fresher  life  be  born, 

Shine  out  true  Light !  to  guide  my  way  amid  that  deepening 

gloom, 
And  rise,  O  Morning  Star,  the  first  that  day-spring  to  illume  ! 

1  cannot  dread  the  darkness  where  thou  wilt  watch  o'er  me, 
Nor  smile  to  greet  the  sunrise  unless  thy  smile  I  see  ; 
Creator,  Saviour,  Comforter  !  on  thee  my  soul  is  cast ; 

At  morn,  at  night,  in  earth,  in  heaven,  be  thou  my  First  and 
Last. 

October,  1874. 


XVIII. 

HEAVENLY  TREASURES. 

Ezekiel  viii.  12.    Every  man  in  the  chambers  of  his  imagery, 
Matthew  vi.  20.    Lay  7ip  for  yourselves  treasures  in  heaven. 

JESUS  makes  a  sharp  contrast  between  treas- 
ures on  earth  and  treasures  in  heaven  —  those 
subject  to  corruption,  and  rust,  and  plunder  —  these 
safe  in  the  Divine  keeping,  where  thieves  do  not 
break  through  and  steal.  This,  however,  is  what  is 
called  a  Hebrew  comparison.  In  the  Hebrew  idiom 
one  thing  is  declared  better  than  another  by  being 
put  in  opposition  to  it  ;  and  the  meaning  is,  Be 
not  so  careful  of  earthly  treasures,  which  are  transi- 
tory, as  of  heavenly  treasures,  which  are  permanent 
and  unfading. 

The  text,  then,  does  not  by  any  means  give  sanc- 
tion to  the  asceticism  which  some  have  grafted 
upon  Christianity,  nor  to  that  sour  contempt  of  this 
world,  or  scorn  of  its  wealth  and  beauty,  which  are 
sometimes  thought  to  indicate  spirituality  of  mind. 
Unquestionably  the  more  of  heaven  we  have  within 
us,  the  more  we  shall  see  it  in  all  things  without  us  ; 


298  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

so  that  high  spiritual  frames  will  not  shut  us  out 
from  this  world,  but  give  it  to  us  in  more  complete 
possession,  albeit  transfigured  as  the  image  of  the 
eternal  wisdom  and  love. 

At  the  same  time  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the 
best  ministries  of  this  world  to  us  consist  mainly 
in  this  —  that  they  prepare  us  to  do  without  them. 
The  most  heavenly  state  of  mind  is  that  which  en- 
joys this  world  the  most,  and  at  the  same  time  does 
not  depend  upon  it  for  its  pleasures.  And  you 
could  not  apply  a  better  test  to  yourself  to  deter- 
mine whether  you  are  carnally  or  spiritually  minded 
than  this  ;  whether  you  grow  more  dependent  on 
outward  props  and  pleasures,  or  whether  you  are 
passing  into  that  untroubled  peace  which  could 
never  be  broken  up,  though  the  props  should  fall 
away,  and  moth  and  rust  should  canker  all  earthly 
things. 

And  this  brings  me  to  the  core  of  my  subject  — 
the  solid  treasures  which  the  Divine  preacher  here 
recommends  —  "Treasures  in  heaven."  I  think  this 
phraseology  conveys  to  many  minds  no  very  distinct 
ideas.  They  conceive  of  heavenly  treasures  as  of 
something  undefined,  transcendental,  and  shadowy, 
not  the  substantial  and  eternal  things  which  the 
Saviour  declares  them  to  be.  And  the  reason  why 
many  persons  put  off  the  claims  of  religion  and 
clutch  at  the  things  of  this  world  alone,  seems  to  be 
just   this    inversion  of   the  truth,  making   material 


HE  AVE  XL  Y   TREASURES.  299 

things  the  substance  and  spiritual  things  the  shadow  ; 
when,  as  you  observe,  Christ  does  exactly  the  re- 
verse ;  He  makes  spiritual  things  the  unchanging 
substance  and  earthly  things  the  changing  and  fleet- 
ing shade. 

What,  then,  are  these  heavenly  treasures  ?  YVe  do 
something  towards  dissipating  the  delusions  about 
them  when  we  say  what  they  are  not.  They  are 
not  the  future  happiness  put  in  contrast  with  the 
present.  They  are  not  possessions  reserved  only  in 
some  dim  and  uncertain  Future  beyond  the  grave. 
What  is  far  off  in  another  world  will  always  look 
shadowy  and  unreal,  and  subject  to  a  thousand  hap- 
penings. What  is  present  and  tangible  is  sure ; 
hence,  the  worldly  man's  maxim,  "  Let  us  eat  and 
drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die."  Food  and  drink  are 
real  things.  As  to  what  will  be  after  death  —  that 
is  contingent,  he  thinks,  and  hangs  on  the  links  of 
theologic  syllogisms.  But  the  contrast  is  not  be- 
tween earthly  treasures  and  heavenly,  as  if  one  were 
now  and  here  and  the  other  then  and  there.  Both 
are  now  and  here,  one  transitory  as  the  summer 
foliage,  the  other  unchanging  as  the  throne  of  God. 

I.  Passing  from  what  is  negative  to  what  is  posi- 
tive, we  say  first,  there  are  treasures  of  the  mind. 
There  are  what  the  prophet  calls  "  chambers  of  im- 
agery." Our  life  has  two  great  divisions.  There  is 
the  period  when  we  acquire  and  lay  up  the  material 
of  thought,  and  there  is  the  period  when  we  fall  back 


300  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

upon  it,  use  it,  revolve  it,  arrange  it,  and  draw  it  forth 
from  the  mind  as  from  a  store-house  of  grand  and 
beautiful  things.  "  A  thing  of  beauty  is  a  joy  for- 
ever," because  he  whose  tastes  have  been  so  purified 
and  elevated  as  to  enjoy  any  kind  of  good  has  stored 
his  mind  so  far  forth  with  riches  that  can  never  fade. 
This  world  will  pass  away  from  you,  but  it  is  leav- 
ing imprints  which  cannot  pass  away.  They  whose 
minds  have  acquired  nothing  are  poor  and  wretched 
in  their  own  emptiness  when  compelled  to  be  alone, 
or  cut  off  from  external  things.  But  a  mind  well 
stored  has  abundant  resources  always  in  the  halls  of 
imagery.  You  remember  the  case  of  the  Danish 
traveller,  Niebuhr,  who  lived  over  amid  the  furniture 
of  his  inmost  mind  the  things  he  had  seen,  and  en- 
joyed them  more  hugely  than  in  the  senses  them- 
selves, when  "  the  deep  intense  sky  of  Asia,  with  its 
brilliant  and  twinkling  host  of  stars  which  he  had 
gazed  at  by  night,  or  its  lofty  vault  of  blue  by  day,  was 
reflected  in  the  hours  of  stillness  and  darkness  on 
his  inmost  soul."  And  perhaps  more  remarkable  yet 
was  the  case  of  that  blind  old  man  whose  mind  was 
aflame  with  light  just  in  the  degree  that  his  senses 
went  out  in  darkness  ;  when  the  bursting  treasuries 
of  the  mind  within,  the  accumulated  wealth  of  years, 
arranged  themselves  at  his  creative  word,  and  un- 
rolled in  rhythmic  order,  and  sang  themselves  in 
the  "  Paradise  Lost,"  and  "  Regained,"  which  have 
charmed  the  world  ever  since,  suggesting  to  us  the 


HEAVENLY  TREASURES.  30 1 

thought  that  the  songs  of  heaven  itself  will  have 
richness  in  them  only  to  those  whose  souls  contrib- 
ute something  to  the  melodies. 

The  chambers  of  imagery !  You  will  find  them 
dark  and  empty  in  the  hour  of  need  unless  betimes 
you  put  something  into  them.  And  I  touch  here 
upon  the  cause  of  that  total  collapse  which  comes  to 
so  many  persons  during  the  second,  or  what  may  be 
called  the  reflective  period  of  life.  In  the  first  period, 
when  the  sense  is  keen  and  the  mind  vivacious,  mere 
external  graces  may  conceal  the  poverty  within. 
But  all  these  external  graces  are  to  wither  like  the 
flowers  of  summer.  And  if  beneath  them  no  treas- 
ures have  been  stored  away,  nothing  remains  but 
the  dreary  vacuity  and  desolation.  Nothing  has  been 
read  which  has  been  reduced  to  form  and  order,  and 
ranged  along  as  the  furniture  of  the  soul ;  nothing 
has  been  thought  out  as  the  product  of  our  own  God- 
given  faculties.  Nothing  has  been  seen  and  enjoyed 
with  aught  else  than  the  carnal  eye  ;  never  with  that 
inward  eye  which  the  higher  culture  opens,  ranging 
all  things  of  beauty  in  the  chambers  of  imagery,  there 
to  be  a  delight  forever.  There  is  nothing  of  all 
this,  and  so  solitude  becomes  a  burden,  reflection  a 
weariness,  for  it  feeds  on  emptiness  ;  conversation  is 
all  about  persons,  never  about  things  and  principles 
and  plans  of  beneficence,  degenerating  always  into 
the  poorest  or  the  most  mischievous  of  personal  gos- 
sip.    A  mind  reduced  to  this  condition  gives  us  the 


302  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

most  perfect  conception  of  what  the  hymn  calls  "  the 
emptiness  of  things  below."  Treasures  of  the  mind 
become  in  this  point  of  view  of  vast  importance  to 
our  future  happiness,  even  if  there  were  no  delight  in 
acquisition.  O  my  younger  hearers  !  you  who  are  in 
the  first  period  of  acquisition,  if  you  knew  how  much 
is  depending  upon  it,  —  if  you  knew  that  in  the  sec- 
ond period  which  is  coming  on  apace,  the  intellect 
is  to  emerge  poor  and  bare,  with  no  resources  in  it- 
self, and  no  fitness  for  the  higher  intercourse,  unless 
now  you  replenish  its  chambers,  —  you  would  take 
every  opportunity  to  furnish  them  well,  and 

"  In  after  years, 
When  these  wild  ecstasies  shall  be  matured 
Into  a  sober  pleasure,  then  thy  mind 
Shall  be  a  mansion  for  all  lovely  forms, 
Thy  memory  be  as  a  dwelling-place 
For  all  sweet  sounds  and  harmonies." 

There  is  the  laying  up  of  inward  treasures  that  keeps 
them  ever  on  the  increase.  He  who  aims  at  the 
highest  usefulness  here  will  put  these  treasures  into 
his  plan  of  culture.  Wisdom  evolved  from  experi- 
ence, knowledge  ever  enlarging  from  plans  of  reading, 
observing,  and  thinking  ;  the  chambers  of  imagery 
lengthening  out  into  Florentine  galleries  with  every 
new  step  of  progress,  —  all  these  .are  storing  up  every 
day  in  the  treasuries  of  the  mind ;  and  so  when  youth 
has  passed,  there  is  something  better  to  appear  than 
decay  and  wrinkles,  —  precious  fruits,  golden  clusters 


HEAVENLY  TREASURES.  303 

of  it,  not  subject  to  corruption,  but  ripe  for  immor- 
tality. These  are  conditions  for  the  right  building  of 
the  heavenly  mansion  which  is  to  contain  our  choicest 
treasures,  and  whose  foundations  should  be  laid  now 
and  here. 

II.  But  again  there  are  spiritual  treasures.  These 
"  chambers  of  imagery  "  contain  something  more  than 
intellectual  furniture.  The  fashion  of  this  world  will 
pass  away.  But  it  will  have  left  on  our  minds  within 
prints  and  copies  of  itself.  What  we  have  said  and 
done  and  intended,  and  when  and  where  —  all  these 
are  sketched  on  the  canvas  of  the  soul  and  rolled  up 
and  folded  away  for  a  day  of  judgment.  Hence, 
Christ  says  that  on  that  day,  for  every  idle  word  that 
men  shall  speak  they  shall  give  an  account  thereof. 
So  Paul,  as  I  render  him.  "  We  must  all  be  made 
manifest  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ,  that 
every  man  may  carry  away  from  his  body  what  he 
appropriated  to  himself  while  in  the  body,  whether  it 
be  good  or  whether  it  be  evil."  It  is  the  unrolling 
of  the  canvas  in  these  halls  of  imagery  which  is  to 
show  our  condemnation  or  our  acquittal  in  the  great 
and  inevitable  day.  We  eat  and  drink,  we  buy  and 
sell,  and  we  think  the  past  has  been  buried  under  the 
glare  of  our  feverish  present.  But  in  some  hour  of 
solemn  thought,  in  the  stillness  of  our  curtained 
chamber  where  sickness  has  confined  us,  in  the  hour 
of  death,  perchance,  when  the  doors  are  shut  towards 
the  street,  the  landscapes  of  the  mind  emerge  in  long 


304  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

array  and  in  vivid  light  and  unroll  our  past  behind 
us  from  the  cradle  to  the  present  hour.  Sometimes 
this  is  done  with  such  minuteness  and  vividness  of 
touch  as  to  warrant  the  belief  that  nothing  is  ever 
lost  from  the  canvas.  And  this  gives  us  very  dis- 
tinct gleams  of  the  meaning  of  St.  John  concerning 
the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord.  "  Their  works  do  fol- 
low them,"  he  says.  It  is  a  mighty  persuasive  to 
well-doing  that  its  ever  lengthening  Past  is  to  lie  on 
the  scenery  of  the  soul  and  be  drawn  after  it ;  and  it 
is  the  condemnation  of  evil  doing  that  its  chambers 
of  imagery  are  ever  filling  with  those  deformities 
which  make  up  its  scenery  forever.  Good  or  bad, 
their  works  follow  them,  for  they  open  in  the  mem- 
ory a  long  gallery  behind  them.  "  They  shall  look  on 
Him  whom  they  have  pierced,"  was  the  condemna- 
tion of  the  murderers  ;  and  so  it  is  with  all  injustice 
and  wrong.  The  faces  of  the  sufferers,  sad  and 
plaintive,  follow  from  behind  in  a  long  procession. 
What  we  call  the  pleasures  of  a  good  conscience,  or 
the  tortures  of  a  guilty  one,  would  hardly  exist  to  us 
were  it  not  for  these  chambers  of  imagery.  Some- 
times the  pictures  in  them  seem  to  have  faded  out,  or 
to  be  overlaid  by  new  and  more  gaudy  colors  ;  but 
there  is  an  Artist  who  holds  a  brush  so  delicate  and 
true  as  to  reproduce  them  in  vivid  outline  when  He 
deems  it  necessary  to  bring  us  into  clearer  self-knowl- 
edge and  self-convictions  ;  and  only  the  reception  of 
his  great  atonement  through  our  inward  renewal  and 


HEAVENLY  TREASURES.  305 

the  dawn  of  a  heavenly  life  can  throw  them  into  the 
obscuring  shade  where  they  will  glare  upon  us  no 
more. 

III.  But  beside  all  these  are  the  treasures  of  faith  ; 
and  please  distinguish  between  the  objects  of  faith, 
which  only  inspire  hope  and  expectation,  and  those 
which  become  a  present  possession,  and,  therefore, 
the  treasures  of  the  soul.  There  is  Christian  truth 
which  is  only  a  theory  and  a  speculation,  and  which 
one  may  hold,  along  with  any  kind  or  any  amount  of 
practical  unrighteousness.  There  may  be  the  sound- 
est and  most  perfect  believing,  which  is  nothing  but  a 
floating  theory  that  never  touches  the  ground.  There 
are  two  kinds  of  Christianity.  There  is  one  which 
floats  in  the  air  ;  which  lives  in  the  discussions,  and 
sometimes  in  the  disputes  and  quarrels  of  Christian 
believers  ;  theories  of  salvation  which  some  will  tell 
you  a  man  must  hold  in  order  that  his  heaven  here- 
after may  be  secure.  There  are  doctrines  about  God 
and  about  Christ,  and  about  the  relation  which  sub- 
sists between  them,  which  may  be  true  and  of  vast 
importance,  but  which,  nevertheless,  may  be  only  doc- 
trines of  faith,  and  not  treasures  of  faith.  No  truth 
is  ours  till  we  have  in  some  sort  lived  it  ;  no  doctrine 
of  the  Gospel  has  become  fairly  our  possession  till  it 
has  entered  into  our  vital  experience.  "  If  any  man 
love  me  he  will  keep  my  words,  and  my  Father  will 
love  him,  and  we  will  come  and  make  our  abode  with 
him."  You  might  take  all  the  preceots  of  Jesus  out 
20 


306  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

of  their  connection  and  away  from  his  Divine  person- 
ality, and  adopt  them  as  prudential  maxims  of  con- 
duct. And  why  will  not  that  be  all-sufficient,  and 
why  may  we  not  just  -as  well  leave  Christ  away  be- 
hind us  and  out  of  the  account  altogether,  if  only  we 
take  his  words  and  practice  them  as  abstract  moral 
principles  ?  Because  you  want  not  only  his  words, 
but  his  life  that  throbs  through  them  ;  not  only  the 
practice,  but  the  spirit  thereof ;  and  this  comes  from 
obedience  and  discipleship,  for  they  bring  you  into 
tender  and  blissful  relations  with  Him  in  whom 
dwells  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead.  "  If  any  man 
love  me,"  —  He  makes  an  essential  condition  ;  for  it 
is  the  love  of  Christ  that  expels  all  the  hatreds  and 
angers,  and  the  pride  of  life  which  our  moral  be- 
havior may  cover  over,  but  which  we  carry  along 
with  us  until  Christ  Himself  be  formed  within  ;  and 
meeting  us  in  the  humble  path  of  obedience  and  dis- 
cipleship, the  Divine  Truth  and  Love,  as  they  are 
in  Jesus,  come  and  make  their  abode  with  us.  By 
obedience  in  the  spirit  of  personal  discipleship  the 
doctrines  of  faith  pass  from  shadowy  speculations 
into  golden  treasures,  —  treasures  in  heaven  not  laid 
up  in  reserve  in  some  far-off  and  contingent  future, 
but  in  the  heaven  whose  dawn  is  in  the  soul,  and  out 
of  whose  experience  of  love  and  peace  the  sons  of 
God  already  are  shouting  for  joy. 

The  Christ  of   consciousness,  as  He  passes  over 
from  the  realm  of  speculation  into  the  soul  and  fills 


HEAVENLY  TREASURES.  307 

it  with  Himself,  will  be  to  you,  I  suppose,  a  mystical 
and  shadowy  conception,  unless  there  is  something 
in  your  own  experience  to  give  it  realism  and  make 
it  plain.  But  we  can  make  this  clear  by  most  famil- 
iar analogies.  There  is  a  teacher,  we  will  say,  who 
never  meets  his  class  ;  he  only  sends  them  lessons 
and  rules  of  behavior,  and  a  list  of  the  command- 
ments which  they  are  expected  to  obey,  and  a  de- 
scription of  penalties  for  disobedience,  or  of  medals 
and  rewards  for  good  conduct.  How  much  do  you 
suppose  this  lean  skeleton  of  the  ideal  man  will  in- 
corporate itself  with  the  minds  and  characters  of 
those  pupils  ?  and  even  if  they  try  to  grasp  it  and 
appropriate  it,  how  much  of  health  and  glow  will 
this  paper  humanity  be  likely  to  put  into  them  ? 
Do  you  not  see  that  even  the  virtues,  cultivated  in 
that  way,  will  have  somewhat  in  them  stiff  and  hard, 
and  lacking  spontaneous  grace  and  inspiration  ? 
whereas,  the  good  teacher  in  the  midst  of  his  pupils, 
all  radiant  with  personal  love,  reproduces  himself  in 
them,  clothing  this  ideal  skeleton  with  flesh  and 
blood,  and  making  the  virtue  he  imparts  beat  with 
the  pulses  of  his  own  life.  A  faint  illustration,  I 
confess,  of  the  creative  power  in  the  Divine  person- 
alities of  Christianity  when  we  give  ourselves  up  to 
their  transforming  influence  ;  of  the  difference  be- 
tween the  Christianity  of  floating  dogma,  or  of  one 
which  has  the  Christ  taken  out  of  it,  and  the  living 
Gospel,  which   not   only  gives    you    Christ   formed 


308  SERMOXS  AXD  SOXGS. 

within,  as  the  hope  of  glory,  but   as  the  heavenly 
treasure  already  won. 

Treasures  of  the  mind,  treasures  of  the  soul,  and 
treasures  of  faith,  then,  are  the  riches  laid  up  in 
heaven.  They  are  what  we  have  now  and  here,  if 
at  all ;  and  they  are  what  we  shall  continue  to  have 
when  these  changing  fashions  of  earth  and  sense, 
and  this  outward  circumstance  of  clay  have  passed 
away  from  us  forever.  And  you  are  only  to  imag- 
ine yourself  without  them  to  conceive  what  the  fu- 
ture retribution  is  to  be.  One  might  well  shrink 
from  an  application  of  this  subject  when  we  see 
what  multitudes  are  toiling  to  acquire,  or  how 
deeply  buried  they  are  in  the  conditions  of  sense 
and  matter.  To  the  outward  eye  it  would  almost 
seem  that  there  are  whole  classes  of  people  who 
wear  the  human  form,  whose  life  is  so  faintly  dis- 
tinguishable from  that  of  the  animal,  that  when  the 
body  falls  away  from  them,  there  will  be  nothing 
left ;  that  there  is  not  spiritual  life  enough  in  them 
to  "  shoot  the  gulf  of  death,"  and  come  up  on  the 
other  side.  But  all  progress  and  discovery,  and  all 
the  explorations  of  our  own  mysterious  nature,  con- 
firm the  Christian  doctrine  of  man's  inherent  immor- 
tality, that  it  is  inborn,  not  conferred  or  acquired.  I 
believe  in  its  lands  and  its  deathless  dwellings  just 
as  much  as  I  believe  in  the  continents  over  the  sea. 
But  the  old  half  Jewish  half  pagan  doctrine  of  retri- 
bution the  Church  has  nearly  done  with.     No,  it  is 


HEAVENLY  TREASURES.  309 

not  the  wrath  to  come  that  men  have  to  fear.  There 
is  no  Divine  anger  to  be  quenched  in  blood,  and  no 
rewards  for  factitious  or  substituted  righteousness. 
There  is  something  surer  and  nigh  at  hand  that  men 
have  to  fear,  whose  culture  is  only  sense  deep,  and 
who  depend  on  this  outward  show  for  all  that  they 
enjoy.  For  when  all  this  is  shut  off  from  them, 
what  is  there  left  ?  Poverty,  destitution,  the  sandy 
deserts  of  the  mind,  the  squalor  and  the  want  and 
the  outer  darkness  of  mind  and  soul.  For  we  carry 
away  with  us  only  what  was  in  the  body,  and  if  there 
was  nothing  in  the  body  but  the  soul's  squalor  and 
nakedness,  these  are  all  which  can  emerge  on  the 
other  side.  As  sure  as  heaven  is  not  a  locale,  but  a 
subjective  condition,  so  sure  shall  we  fail  of  it  and 
be  in  the  outside  darkness,  unless  we  carry  it  along 
with  us  over  the  stream.  To  the  multitudes,  then, 
who  toil  only  for  ashes  or  that  which  will  turn  to 
ashes,  the  exhortation  would  be,  not  flee  from  the 
wrath  to  come,  but  flee  from  the  desolation  and  the 
abodes  of  darkness. 

"  Their  works  do  follow  them."  Our  doctrine  is 
an  ever  fresh  incitement  to  the  Christian  believer 
whose  life  is  a  continuous  accumulation  of  heavenly 
treasures.  Our  chambers  of  imagery  should  be 
an  ever  lengthening  gallery  reaching  continuously 
through  time  and  into  eternity  and  bridging  over  the 
dreaded  gulf  that  lies  between.  The  essential  con- 
ditions of  happiness  are  given  us  here  ;  no  different 


3IO  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

ones  will  be  afforded  after  we  have  passed  over  to 
the  other  side.  Always  our  Past  must  follow  us, 
here  and  through  the  endless  Future,  and  our  Pres- 
ent will  be  the  resultant  of  all  the  forces  behind  us 
which  we  have  chosen  to  bring  into  play.  There  are 
two  ranges  of  mountains  in  Palestine,  standing  over 
against  each  other,  on  one  of  which  were  pronounced 
the  curses  of  the  Law,  and  on  the  other  the  promises 
and  benedictions.  I  should  take  these  to  symbolize 
our  past  history.  There  is  a  Mount  Ebal  and  a 
Mount  Gerazim  in  every  one's  experience,  if  he  has 
truly  had  a  probation  and  a  history.  They  rise  up 
in  the  past,  the  one  blackened  and  ragged,  and  with 
voices  of  malediction,  showing  forth  all  that  is  pain- 
ful in  our  biography  and  all  the  crosses  and  frowns 
of  the  Divine  Providence.  From  the  other  come 
the  promises  and  blessings.  But  as  we  journey  on, 
one  or  the  other  becomes  obscured  and  finally  disap- 
pears from  sight.  Clouds  of  oblivion  roll  over  it  and 
hide  it.  Sometimes  one  disappears,  sometimes  the 
other.  Sometimes  it  is  Ebal,  black  and  portentous, 
that  takes  up  the  whole  retrospect,  flinging  its  shad- 
ows and  maledictions  over  all  the  future  way.  Or 
again  it  is  Gerazim,  looming  up  in  splendors  maH~ 
bright  in  the  westering  sun.  Ebal  has  gone  clea^ 
out  of  sight,  and  the  promises  and  benedictions  come 
louder  arid  clearer,  and  fill  our  whole  space  with 
sphere-melodies  and  prophecies  of  things  to  be.  We 
may  not  annihilate  our  past,  but  it  depends  on  our 


HEAVENLY  TREASURES.  3  1 1 

choice  which  shall  stand  out  bold  in  the  eternal 
sunshine  and  which  shall  disappear  in  the  obscuring 
shade.  May  yours  be  the  mount  of  benedictions, 
lengthening  on  forever  and  forever,  over  which  the 
Saviour's  Beatitudes  shall  come  without  ceasing,  and 
the  approving  voice  of  the  Infinite  Father,  "  Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into  the 
joy  of  thy  Lord." 


CHAMBERS  OF  IMAGERY. 

Clear  was  the  sky  and  hushed  the  gale, 

That  Sabbath  day  in  Grasmere  vale, 

As  if  where  now  her  Poet  sleeps, 

Nature  a  holier  Sabbath  keeps  : 

He  lies  upon  her  loving  breast, 

The  hills  all  watching  o'er  his  rest, 

Beside  the  shore  of  Grasmere  Lake, 

In  whose  still  depths,  the  noonbeams  make 

Sweet  copies  of  the  quiet  scene, 

Along  her  banks  of  summer  green. 

I  found  the  place  of  "  Green-head  Ghyll," 
And  conned  old  Michael's  tale  awhile  ; 
And  when  the  day  was  waning  late 
I  passed  the  famous  "  Wishing  Gate," 
Where  Rydal  Water  softly  flows, 
Afraid  to  break  its  own  repose, 
And  came  where  thy  tall  cliff,  Nabscar, 
Flings  greetings  to  the  Morning  Star  ; 
Or  Evening  round  thy  hoary  head 
Weaves  thy  soft  cowl  of  sable  red. 

Blue  ether's  arms  around  us  flung,1 
We  climbed  thy  highest  crags  among, 
And  pictures  there  before  us  lay 
Whose  charm  will  never  fade  away  : 

1  "  Blue  ether's  arms  flung  round  thee 
Stilled  the  pantings  of  dismay." 

Wordsworth's  Ascent  of  Flelvellyn. 


3  14  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

The  brook  from  RydaFs  silent  tide 
Went  dreaming  down  to  Ambleside, 
And  in  its  summer  verdure  sweet 
Lay  Rydal  Mount  beneath  our  feet, 
Its  garden-walks  and  blooming  crest 
O'erhanging  from  our  eagle's  nest. 

The  Grasmere  Lake  beneath  our  gaze 
Put  on  a  modest  veil  of  haze  ; 
The  Helter-water's  silver  sheen 
Seemed  like  a  gem  embossed  in  green  ; 
Far  southward,  like  a  mirror  clear, 
Spread  thy  broad  sheet,  Winandermere  ; 
Coniston  Lake  beyond,  burned  through 
The  misty  robe  of  mountain-blue 
Away  toward  the  fringes,  where 
The  mountains  melt  in  purple  air. 

The  setting  sun  turned  Alchemist, 

And  streams  and  lakes  and  lakelets  kissed, 

And  a  vast  ground  afar  unrolled 

Of  green  bespangled  o'er  with  gold  : 

The  hills  as  monarchs  stand  confest, 

A  flashing  shield  on  ever}7  breast, 

While  at  their  feet  their  treasure  shines  ; 

As  earth  had  emptied  all  her  mines 

Of  precious  ores  and  gems  most  rare, 

And  poured  in  molten  rivers  there. 

These  golden  treasures  fade  —  and  then 
Comes  on  the  solemn  twilight  scene. 
Bright  cherub  forms  in  endless  crowds 
Build  stairs  to  heaven  of  amber  clouds, 
And  hushed  beneath  the  orange  skies 


CHAMBERS   OF  IMA  GER  Y.  3  1 5 

The  earth  in  meek  enchantment  lies  ; 
While  through  the  gilded  haze  afar 
Comes  bravely  on  the  Evening  Star, 
And  tricks  his  silver  beams  to  be 
Ablaze  in  Grasmere's  mimic  sea. 

But  not  less  lovely  or  sublime 

Are  mountains  that  I  used  to  climb  : 

No  skyey  tint  of  softer  hue 

Adorns  Helvellyn's  wall  of  blue, 

Nor  does  the  Day  drop  sweeter  smiles 

On  Grasmere  or  Winander's  isles 

Than  those  beneath  Taghanic's  eye, 

Where  Berkshire's  vales  and  landscapes  lie  ; 

And  yet  thy  heights  must  peerless  stand, 

Thy  glorious  mountains,  Westmoreland  ! 

For  holier  charms  are  on  thee  shed 
Than  glories  of  the  evening  red. 
An  "  Evening  Ode  "  thy  vales  along 
Breathes  as  an  everlasting  song  ; 
An  alchemy  of  higher  skill 
Moulds  all  thy  scenery  at  its  will, 
And  hill  and  vale  and  lake  and  stream, 
Fused  in  the  Poet's  matchless  dream. 
Come  forth  anew  beneath  the  skies 
That  span  the  hills  of  Paradise. 

And  from  thy  hills  I  bore  away 
Chambers  of  fadeless  imagery, 
WThich  clearer  rise  and  warmer  burn 
When  Wordsworth's  quiet  page  I  turn, 
Who  in  these  typic  glories  found 


316  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

"  To  what  fair  countries  we  are  bound  "  l  — 
As  if,  in  mansions  of  the  Blest, 
Our  heaven  might  have  its  golden  West, 
And  all  of  earth's  resplendent  show 
In  still  diviner  beauty  glow. 

And  He  who  came  —  the  Incarnate  Word  — 
When  conscious  Nature  knew  her  Lord, 
Clothed  the  pure  heaven  his  gospel  brings 
In  earth's  most  rare  and  beauteous  things  ; 
The  harvest  fields  of  precious  dower, 
The  cleansing  stream,  the  lowly  flower, 
The  Riv€r  rolling  ever  on 
From  living  springs  beneath  the  Throne, 
The  trees  that  fringe  the  sunlit  shore 
With  rainbow  glories  bending  o'er. 

And  ever,  to  his  prophet's  view, 
The  Word  createth  all  things  new. 
At  his  anointing  touch,  our  sight 
Beholds  the  Uncreated  Light ; 
Sees  Nature's  dower  of  splendors,  won 
From  worlds  beyond  earth's  paler  sun  ;  2 
Sees  the  Apostle's  creed  writ  fine 
On  penciled  flower  and  eglantine, 
And  "  hues  from  the  celestial  urn  " 
On  all  our  Horeb  mountains  burn. 

O  Thou,  the  all-creative  Word  ! 
Beneath  whom  Nature  owns  her  Lord, 

1  See  the  "  Ode  written  on  an  Evening  of  extraordinary  Splendor 
and  Beauty." 

2  "  From  worlds  not  travelledby  the  sun 
A  portion  of  the  gift  is  won."  — Id. 


CHAMBERS  OF  IMAGERY.  317 

Give  me  the  mind  and  heart  most  fit 
To  read  thine  elder  Holy  Writ, 
That  when  from  earth  I  bear  away 
The  chambers  of  its  imagery, 
The  hills  beneath  thy  higher  skies 
As  old  familiar  friends  shall  rise, 
And  all  of  earth  most  pure  and  fair 
Bloom  with  immortal  beauty  there. 


XIX. 
THE  IMMEDIATE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  GOD. 

John  xiv.  9.     He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  see?i  the  Father. 

r  I  ^HE  great  religions  of  the  world,  some  of  which 
■*-  preceded  Christianity  and  prepared  the  way 
for  it,  have  been  more  explored  of  late  and  better 
understood.  If  we  study  them  with  any  just  de- 
gree of  sympathy  with  what  is  true  and  good  in 
them,  we  shall  be  much  less  disposed  than  formerly 
to  show  them  in  contrast  with  the  religion  of 
Christ.  We  shall  find  in  all  of  them  revelations 
from  God,  and  truths  which  when  obeyed  lead  to 
happiness  here  and  hereafter.  This  fact  so  auspi- 
cious for  the  hopes  of  humanity  is  used  for  a  double 
purpose  in  the  discussions  of  the  hour.  Those  who 
regard  Christianity  only  as  one  of  the  ethnic  relig- 
ions, and  not  a  universal  one,  treat  it  very  much  as 
we  do  the  religion  of  Buddha  or  Zoroaster.  They 
eliminate  what  they  think  to  be  false  and  transitory, 
and  evolving  the  good  and  the  true,  pass  on  with  it 
and  use  it  in  the  construction  of  a  new  religion  which 
they  think  more  comprehending  and  absolute.  Their 
position  is  not  inside  the  Christian  system,  nor 
yet  in   opposition  to    it  ;  but  professedly  above    it ; 


320  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

Leaving  out  of  it  all  that  modern  thought  cannot 
verify,  or  all  that  advanced  science  is  supposed  to 
antagonize,  they  decline  to  take  the  Christian  name, 
because  they  say  it  is  not  broad  enough.  They 
want  a  name  that  covers  more,  and  comprehends 
truths  which  Christianity  does  not  give  them. 

On  the  other  hand,  those  who  find  in  Christianity 
what  these  religionists  do  not,  will  receive  it  as  the 
absolute  religion  —  not  opposed  to  any  of  the  great 
religions  of  the  past,  but  the  fulfilment  of  them  all. 
They  were  provisional  and  preparatory,  and  given  to 
educate  the  race  for  the  fulness  of  time.  As  Origen 
would  say,  they  were  the  streaks  of  dawn  which  the 
coming  Word  sent  on  before  Him  until  the  Christ 
appeared,  the  central  power  of  all  their  splendors, 
and  a  new  sunrise  upon  the  waiting  world.  The 
Word  was  in  the  world  before  Christ  came,  in  the 
twilight  gleams  that  heralded  his  appearing,  by  which 
all  the  Oriental  superstitions  were  streaked  with 
light ;  and  the  Word  made  flesh  was  the  open  day 
that  fulfilled  the  promise  of  that  early  dawn. 

You  have  in  these  illustrations  a  clear  conception 
of  the  difference  between  the  "  Free  Religion  "  that 
declines  the  Christian  name,  and  Christianity  received 
as  the  absolute  religion  of  humanity.  I  only  state 
their  relative  positions,  not  designing  to  argue  the 
points  between  them  except  as  concerns  a  single  doc- 
trine of  faith.  The  Free  Religion  eliminates  from 
Christianity  the  doctrine  of  a  mediator  on  the  plea 


THE  IMMEDIATE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD.      32 1 

that  the  heart  craves  an  immediate  approach  to  God. 
Humanity,  especially  in  this  present  stage  of  its  prog- 
ress, needs  no  intervention  between  itself  and  Di- 
vinity, and  it  is  time,  we  are  told,  that  any  second 
person  or  sub-deity  should  retire  from  the  field,  that 
God  may  come  directly  to  the  thirsting  mind  and 
heart,  and  in  humanity  as  in  nature,  be  all  in  all. 

As  a  Christian  believer  I  should  accept  this  as  the 
crucial  test  of  all  true  religion.  That  religion  is 
best  that  yields  God  to  us  in  most  immediate  and 
ample  measure ;  that  religion  is  fatally  defective 
that  yields  Him  not,  and  will  get  no  permanent  foot- 
hold on  the  earth.  And  I  hold  it  the  distinguishing 
excellency  of  the  Christian  faith  that  it  brings  the 
worshipper  into  most  immediate  relations  with  his 
God,  and  I  reject  the  new  religion  precisely  because 
it  takes  him  out  of  these  relations  and  sets  him  afloat, 
till  he  drifts  away  into  the  unknown,  where  God  is 
lost  in  mist  or  in  darkness. 

It  is  a  strange  misapprehension  of  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  a  mediator  that  it  offers  to  the  worship- 
per a  sub-deity  to  come  between  him  and  the  su- 
preme object  of  adoration.  It  does  not  give  you  one 
person  in  your  devotions  to  stand  between  you  and 
another  person.  That  the  mediaeval  Christianity  fell 
into  this  idolatry  was  natural  enough,  infested  as  it 
was  with  superstitions  brought  over  from  Paganism. 
That  the  Christianity  of  to-day,  best  represented 
either   by  the  Unitarian   or  Trinitarian  division,  is 


21 


322  SERMONS  AXD  SOXGS. 

given  to  any  such  idolatry,  you  will  look  in  vain  for 
evidence. 

What  is  the  office  of  a  mediator  ?  Not  to  put  any- 
thing between  the  worshipper  and  his  God,  but  to 
remove  everything  out  of  the  way  that  hinders  their 
full  and  blissful  communion.  It  is  to  open  channels 
of  intercourse  where  none  existed  before  ;  or  if  they 
did  exist,  to  widen  them  and  clear  them  of  all  hin- 
drances, that  the  River  of  Peace  flowing  out  from  the 
throne  shall  be  unfailing  and  free.  How  this  is  the 
rich  provision  of  Christianity  as  found  in  no  other 
religion,  we  now  proceed  to  demonstrate. 

It  is  a  revelation  of  God.  It  is  a  revelation  of 
man.  And  as  such  it  renders  possible  the  gift  of  the 
Spirit  in  larger  measure  which  yields  God  to  man  in 
the  most  perfect  atonement. 

I.  No  religion  can  bring  God  into  immediate  rela- 
tions with  the  soul  unless  it  first  reveals  God  as  He  is. 
The  mere  guess-work  out  of  our  uncleansed  human 
nature  will  only  be  a  piled  up  superstition  between 
us  and  Him.  Brahminism  establishes  no  healthful 
relations  between  God  and  the  worshipper,  because 
man  never  comes  to  his  rights,  but  is  merged  and  lost 
in  the  All.  Buddhism  establishes  no  such  relations, 
because  though  man  comes  to  his  rights,  when  we 
look  at  the  centre  to  find  God,  there  is  a  total  blank. 
Parseeism  and  Judaism  assert  the  rights  of  both 
God  and  man,  but  never  open  the  channels  between 
them  where   the   River  of   Peace  can  flow  without 


THE  IMMEDIATE  KXOWLEDGE   OF  GOD.       323 

hindrance.  God  is  the  Omnipotent  Father,  was  the 
affirmation  both  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  religions, 
but  He  was  only  the  sublimation  of  our  corrupt  hu- 
man fatherhood  seated  on  Olympus  with  more  storm- 
ful  passions,  and  wielding  more  potent  thunders. 
Mohammedanism  is  a  later  Judaism.  "  God  is  God," 
is  the  identical  proposition  in  whose  iteration  it  never 
tires.  Free  Religion  prolongs  the  strain,  always  in 
peril  of  losing  all  conception  of  Divine  personal  attri- 
butes, or  sinking  them  to  mere  qualities,  till  the  affir- 
mation only  means,  God  is  the  unknowable  Force 
of  the  universe.  The  grand  affirmation  of  Chris- 
tianity is  —  God  is  divinely  human  ;  and  this  is  af- 
firmed not  in  words  alone,  which  might  be  piled  up 
to  the  skies  without  giving  us  a  revelation.  It  pre- 
sents a  Perfect  Humanity  in  which  the  Divine  attri- 
butes are  incarnated  in  the  image  of  the  invisible 
God.  Hence  the  declarations  of  Jesus,  "  He  that  hath 
seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father."  "  Xo  one  knoweth 
the  Father  save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whom  the  Son 
shall  reveal  Him."  Plainly  He  does  not  mean  that  in 
seeing  the  Christ  we  see  God  with  the  bodily  eye, 
but  that  in  Him  both  by  what  He  teaches  and  by 
what  He  is,  the  Divine  qualities  are  shadowed  forth 
as  personal  attributes  ;  the  same  in  a  perfected  hu- 
manity as  in  the  All-perfect  Divinity. 

Words  alone  cannot  reveal  God,  simply  because 
all  human  speech  has  its  roots  in  human  experiences 
and  passions,  and  therefore  has  the  taint  of  our  hu- 


324  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

man  imperfection  and  depravity.  The  Christian 
ideas  of  justice,  forgiveness,  love,  mercy,  compassion, 
have  no  equivalents  where  there  has  been  no  corre- 
sponding experience,  and  so  they  float  in  air  without 
any  roots  to  engraft  them  on  and  give  them  •  rest- 
ing-place. Hence  the  ante-Christian  objects  of  wor- 
ship are  heroes  deified ;  the  gods  evolved  from  our 
frail  human  nature,  taking  its  faults  and  vices  along 
with  them.  "  God  is  love,"  so  the  missionary 
tried  to  teach  one  of  the  South  African  tribes,  and 
they  sensualized  the  thought,  and  it  sank  down 
straightway  into  lust.  Pile  up  the  words  as  you 
may,  and  string  out  the  adjectives  to  any  extent  you 
please,  you  cannot  make  them  redolent  of  the  Di- 
vine charms  and  glories,  because  the  words  can 
reach  no  height  above  the  human  nature  in  which 
they  have  their  root,  and  out  of  which  they  draw 
their  meaning  and  inspiration  ;  and  therefore,  lan- 
guage alone,  gathered  from  all  the  dialects  of  the 
earth,  could  not  yield  to  human  thought  the  immacu- 
late conception  of  the  Godhead.  No,  nor  could  any 
language  floating  down  out  of  heaven  do  it,  for  an- 
gelic words  would  be  untranslatable  into  our  human 
speech  because  they  have  no  roots  in  our  human  ex- 
perience and  history.  Indeed,  angels  did  come  in 
this  way  all  along  the  ages,  and  through  all  the  Old 
Testament  history,  giving  men  dreams  of  a  better 
state,  and  prophecies  of  a  better  future  ;  and  the 
dreams  and  the  prophecies  sank  down  straightway 


THE  IMMEDIATE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD.      $2$ 

into  carnal  conceptions  of  a  temporal  Messiah  ;  and 
never  were  these  conceptions  dissipated,  and  our  hu- 
man thought  lifted  up  to  the  Divine  Idea,  until  the 
angel-song  floated  over  Bethlehem,  and  the  star 
stood  still  over  the  heavenly  babe  lying  in  a  manger. 
The  Divine  Word  was  then  not  only  spoken,  but 
made  flesh,  and  assumed  human  relations.  All  those 
goodly  words  whereby  we  describe  the  Divine  attri- 
butes, justice,  mercy,  forgiveness,  and  love,  He  has 
filled  out  with  new  meaning  ;  lifting  up  our  low  and 
sensuous  vocabularies  into  the  Divine  light,  and 
breathing  the  Divine  life  into  them.  They  have  the 
taint  of  our  selfishness  taken  clean  out  of  them. 
The  Christ  in  the  midst  of  the  ages  is  a  twofold 
revelation.  He  is  the  revelation  alike  of  perfect  Di- 
vinity and  perfect  humanity,  for  one  is  the  image  of 
the  other  copied  down  out  of  heaven.  He  shows 
us  the  God  we  ought  to  worship,  and  brings  Him 
nigh,  in  order  that  his  attributes,  though  in  finite 
degree,  may  be  transferred  to  us  and  we  made  par- 
takers of  the  Divine  nature  and  the  image  of  the 
Divine  perfections. 

II.  But  man  must  be  revealed  as  well  as  God,  and 
revealed  as  he  is,  else  there  can  be  no  such  corre- 
spondency between  them  as  to  create  man  in  the  Di- 
vine image.  And  what  is  called  "the  integrity  of 
human  nature,"  and  its  power  of  arriving  at  all  nec- 
essary truth  by  self  evolution,  is  a  doctrine  whose 
logic  fares  poorly,  whether  you  examine   it  in  the 


326  SERMOiYS  AND  SONGS. 

light  of  science  or  of  history.  Hereditary  depravity 
is  not  a  mere  theologic  dogma,  but  a  scientific  fact, 
as  well  established  as  that  of  the  precession  of  the 
equinoxes  or  the  law  of  gravitation.  The  lusts  and 
passions,  with  the  cruelties  which  they  engender, 
and  their  baleful  eclipse  of  the  godlike  in  human 
nature,  are  patent  enough  to  any  but  our  closet 
theologies,  which  refuse  to  see  the  world  as  it  is.  I 
know  of  no  surer  way  of  judging  of  human  nature 
than  by  the  fruits  it  has  yielded  and  is  yielding  still. 
Its  worth  and  grandeur  and  its  glorious  possibilities 
I  know  in  the  light  of  Christianity,  which  reveals 
our  immortality  ;  and  in  the  light  of  history,  which 
reports  the  select  martyr  train  who  have  put  on  its 
nobler  traits  and  worn  its  crowns  of  royalty.  But 
when  you  talk  of  the  integrity  of  human  nature,  I 
must  look  at  the  masses  who  grope  in  twilight,  and  at 
a  world  that  groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain  together 
until  now.  I  must  look  at  a  country  covered  with 
the  fresh  stains  of  fraternal  blood,  holding  as  its  wards 
millions  of  freedmen  ;  made  such,  not  through  the 
spontaneous  action  of  a  great  people,  but  through 
the  scourgings  of  the  avenging  Justice.  I  must  look 
upon  the  whole  brute  creation  subjected  to  the  tyr- 
anny of  man,  dumbly  pleading  for  mercy  without 
finding  it.  "  The  integrity  of  human  nature  !  "  You 
mean  probably  your  own  human  nature,  and  those 
of  your  fellow-believers  who  occupy  the  advanced 
position  of  the  world  and  see  all  things  in  the  rose- 


THE  IMMEDIATE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD.       327 

light  of  the  new  age.  But  how  came  you  up  there 
on  that  lofty  height,  and  how  came  you  by  the  light 
of  the  new  age  ?  You  climbed  there  by  the  help  of 
Christianity,  and  you  see  the  world  coming  short  of 
the  Divine  ideals  only  as  you  judge  it  by  the  law  of 
human  brotherhood  proclaimed  on  the  mountains  of 
Palestine,  and  incarnate  in  a  Divine  Life  made  a 
whole  sacrifice  for  universal  humanity,  and  poured 
out  on  the  heights  of  Calvary. 

To  reveal  God  as  He  is,  is  to  reveal  man  both  as 
he  is  and  as  he  needs  to  be.  The  Divine  perfections 
brought  down  in  open  illustration  amid  the  corrup- 
tions of  earth,  pour  rebuke  and  condemnation  upon 
them.  We  are  brought  face  to  face  with  the  infinite 
purity  and  justice.  Before  that  we  were  "  alive  with- 
out the  law "  —  alive  to  ourselves,  our  pride,  our 
hatreds,  our  revenges,  in  whose  gratification  the  old 
heroic  virtues  shone  forth  with  such  lurid  splendor. 
The  commandment  comes  and  we  are  a  body  of 
death.  These  supposed  virtues  had  the  taint  of  self 
in  them  all.  We  bow  before  the  Divine  manifesta- 
tation.  "  I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell 
among  a  people  of  unclean  lips,  for  mine  eyes  have 
seen  the  King,  the  Lord  of  hosts."  The  two  in- 
extinguishable wants  of  human  nature  are  now  dis- 
closed —  want  of  purity  and  want  of  life  —  want  of 
cleansing  with  this  body  of  death  moved  out,  and 
want  of  the  Divine  Life  to  flow  in  with  new  creative 
power,  that  the  Divine  human  perfections  in  their 


328  SERMONS  AND  SONGS- 

finite  degree  may  be  transferred  to  us  and  clothe  us 
in  the  righteousness  of  God.  You  may  have  no 
such  want  as  this.  But  remember  that  multitudes 
before  have  been  in  the  same  condition  that  you  are, 
but  found  in  their  profounder  experience  that  the 
want  was  tenfold  more  urgent  for  not  being  before 
felt  and  acknowledged,  in  order  that  our  native  con- 
ceit might  be  taken  down  to  make  room  for  the  Di- 
vine riches  to  come  in.  The  Fatherhood  of  God 
being  once  revealed,  without  any  taint  from  our  cor- 
rupt fatherhoods  carried  up  into  it,  the  law  of  uni- 
versal brotherhood  is  given  also,  and  the  ideal  of 
heavenly  society  has  dawned  upon  the  earth.  Man 
is  to  be  made  perfect  only  as  God  is  perfect.  There 
is  not  one  kind  of  perfection  for  Him  and  another 
for  us,  but  only  as  his  attributes  of  love,  justice,  and 
power  are  transferred  to  human  nature,  and  wrought 
in  it,  do  we  become  his  children,  and  bear  his  like- 
ness. But  in  our  reception  of  the  Divine  life  and 
purity,  the  law  of  demand  and  supply  holds  forever 
—  the  thirst  must  come  before  the  slaking,  the  hun- 
ger before  the  food. 

III.  The  revelation  of  God  and  the  revelation  of 
man  are  preparatory  to  their  direct  communion  and 
atonement.  They  are  in  order  that  God  and  man 
may  meet  together,  and  human  nature  be  cleansed, 
enriched,  and  impleted  from  the  Divine.  This  is  the 
crowning  work  of  Christianity,  and  the  highest  boon 
which  it  brings.     The  gift  of  the   Holy  Spirit  de- 


THE  IMMEDIATE  KNOWLEDGE   OE  GOD.      329 

scending  in  the  line  of  Christian  society,jiot  with 
diminishing  but  with  cumulative  power,  is  the  agency, 
which  Jesus  foretold,  and  for  which  He  came  to  pre- 
pare the  way.  Teacher,  Revealer,  Admonisher,  Com- 
forter, describe  its  offices  and  its  work  in  the  human 
soul.  It  could  not  come  till  there  was  a  place  and 
organism  for  its  reception.  Man  must  first  be  put  in 
right  relations  with  his  brother  before  he  can  have 
any  such  relations  with  God  as  will  bring  Him  near. 
That  done,  and  a  true  brotherhood  inaugurated, 
the  gift  was  waited  for  and  it  came.  It  came 
as  "a  rushing  mighty  wind"  because  of  the  new 
courses  made  for  the  direct  agency  of  God  in 
the  human  heart.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  same  in 
all  religions,  faint  and  indistinct  when  hindered  by 
their  superstitions  and  depravities,  full  as  the  noon- 
tide when  these  have  been  cleared  away.  In  the 
language  of  the  New  Testament  this  agency  is  per- 
sonified, and  in  the  creeds  of  the  Church  it  has  be- 
come hypostatized  as  if  it  were  a  person  indeed. 
The  reason  of  this  is  obvious  enough.  The  word 
"  influence "  is  too  feeble  and  inexpressive  to  de- 
scribe its  power,  so  direct  is  the  action  of  God  within 
the  soul.  He  comes  as  with  a  flaming  sword  to  cut 
down  our  flimsy  conceits  and  imaginations,  and 
wound  the  heart  with  a  sense,  of  its  depravity  and  its 
need.  He  comes  as  with  a  refiner's  fire  to  burn 
away  the  old  stubble  of  unrighteousness  and  dead 
works,  and  to  kindle  the  heart  with  a  new  and  abound- 


330  SERMOA'S  AND  SONGS. 

ing  love.  And  He  comes  with  a  noontide  of  comfort 
and  peace  after  the  victory  over  self  is  gained,  and 
the  consecration  is  unreserved  and  complete.  The 
subject  of  this  Divine  agency  and  renewal  will  not 
call  it  an  influence.  He  is  convinced  that  there  is 
within  it  a  Divine  intelligence,  and  whether  in  the 
call  to  repentance,  or  the  call  to  duty,  or  the  whisper- 
ing assurances  of  the  eternal  peace,  that  there  is  a 
Divine  personality  within  them  all,  and  that  these  are 
not  states  and  conditions  engendered  and  evolved  out 
of  himself.  They  render  prayer  not  a  self-excite- 
ment, but  a  perpetual  feast  of  the  soul  with  her  God. 
But  in  the  gospel  sense  and  in  the  consciousness  of 
the  deepest  and  most  intelligent  Christian  experience 
so  far  as  I  am  acquainted  with  it,  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
not  a  person  in  any  modern  acceptation  of  the  word. 
It  is  the  inworking  creative  Divine  energy  person- 
ified, regarded  as  if  a  person  ;  so  immediately  and 
with  such  fulness  does  God  yield  Himself  to  the 
heart  in  a  Christian  calling  and  discipleship.  It  is 
not  one  deity  coming  between  you  and  another 
deity.  It  is  the  worshipper  placed  in  such  imme- 
diate relations  with  the  Divine  Person  that  he  is 
brought  near  and  speaks  to  the  soul  as  Saviour, 
Comforter,  and  Friend. 

The  office  of  Christ  as  Mediator,  and  the  supreme 
value  of  the  Christian  Gospel,  become  apparent.  The 
immediate  knowledge  of  God  is  the  consummation 
of   its   power   in  the  gift  of   the  Holy  Spirit.     The 


THE   IMMEDIATE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD.      33 1 

Mediator  puts  nothing  between  us  and  God,  but 
moves  everything  that  would  shut  us  out  from  his 
presence.  The  Holy  Spirit,  said  Jesus,  "  shall  take 
of  mine  and  show  it  unto  you."  What  I  tell  or  show- 
to  you  about  God,  He  shall  reveal  and  make  known 
to  you  in  your  profounder  experience.  What  I  mani- 
fest to  you  outwardly,  He  shall  make  good  to  you 
in  your  inward  beholdings.  What  I  give  you  ad- 
dressed to  the  eye  or  the  ear,  He  shall  give  you  as 
the  possession  of  the  heart  and  mind. 

A  man  has  been  shut  up  in  some  prison-house  so 
long  that  he  has  come  to  regard  it  as  a  world  in  itself, 
and  his  solitary  lamp  as  all  the  light  there  is.  Some 
friend  comes  along  and  opens  his  prison  doors  and 
leads  him  out,  and  gives  him  the  noon-day  sun  in 
place  of  his  taper's  blaze,  and  the  whole  horizon  in- 
stead of  his  prison  walls.  This  is  the  work  of  Christ 
as  Mediator.  Men  had  taken  their  own  superstitions 
as  the  light  of  the  world,  and  their  provisional  relig- 
ions for  the  absolute  and  universal.  He  brings 
them  out  of  their  limitations,  puts  the  soul  into  im- 
mediate relations  with  the  Infinite  Father,  and  gives 
her  the  freedom  of  all  his  wealth  and  bounty.  The 
pantheistic  religions  and  Free  Religion  running  by  a 
swift  logic  into  pantheism,  begin  by  asserting  the 
soul's  immediate  relation  to  God.  But  when  they 
make  man  essentially  divine,  consubstantial  with  God 
and  a  part  of  Him,  they  abolish  that  relation  except 
as  part  is  related  to  the  whole.     The  Christian  atone- 


33^  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

ment  is  not  oneness  of  substance,  but  oneness  of 
spirit,  end,  and  operation  in  an  eternal  friendship. 
M  Henceforth  I  call  you  not  servants  but  friends." 

We  are  not  to  confound  the  accidental  or  tempo- 
rary adjuncts  of  the  Pentecostal  scene  with  the 
essential  conditions  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  its  crea- 
tive agency  in  humanity.  Its  inauguration  as  the 
distinctive  power  of  Christianity  had  its  outcome  in 
visible  signs  which  disappear  as  its  currents  become 
broad,  deep,  and  pervasive.  The  broader  and  deeper 
they  are,  the  less  of  apparent  miracle  or  anomaly  have 
attended  it.  But  it  has  been  an  essential  working 
power  of  the  Gospel  through  all  the  Christian  ages. 
The  Divine  Truth  or  God  objectively  revealed,  and 
the  Holy  Spirit  by  which  that  truth  is  kindled  and 
kept  alive  in  the  soul,  are  the  two  operative  forces  of 
Christianity,  and  have  wrought  its  miracles  to  the 
present  time.  For  its  power  in  changing  men,  some- 
times grossly  depraved  and  insensate,  into  tender 
recipients  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  and  inspired  heralds 
of  his  solvation,  is  its  continued  miracle,  though 
operating  by  spiritual  laws,  and  greater  than  any 
outward  signs  and  wonders.  It  is  no  valid  objection 
against  Christianity  as  it  is,  or  as  Christ  gives  it  to 
us,  that  it  has  been  mingled  with  human  additions. 
Its  power  in  clearing  itself  of  these  corruptions  which 
hinder  the  Holy  Spirit  in  its  clearest  energy ;  its 
cumulative  force,  whether  as  the  objective  truth  or 
the  renewing  grace  which  brings  it  home  to  the  con- 


THE   IMMEDIATE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD.      333 

science  and  converts  the  truth  into  life,  is  its  most 
divine  authentication,  and  as  I  read  the  signs  of  prog- 
ress, this  was  never  more  manifest  than  now. 

I  do  not  doubt  that  what  I  say  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
as  bringing  the  soul  into  immediate  relations  with 
God,  and  giving  it  a  new  and  abiding  consciousness 
of  his  comfort  and  love,  will  be  spoken  to  some  of 
you  in  an  unknown  tongue.  But  remember,  I  am 
not  appealing  to  the  private  experience  of  this  per- 
son or  that.  I  point  you  to  the  stream  of  Christian 
history  coursing  its  interior  way  for  eighteen  hun- 
dred years  ;  the  channels  which  the  Spirit  is  making 
for  itself  deeper  and  broader,  all  the  more  effective 
because  more  noiseless  in  its  flow.  Not  alone  in  the 
vast  enlargement  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  but  its 
growing  unity,  its  larger  and  more  overflowing 
charity,  and  its  sense  of  a  more  deep  and  tender 
humanity,  are  the  signs  of  this  cumulative  power. 
You  have  not  felt  it  ?  Very  likely,  because  you  have 
not  complied  with  the  conditions.  They  demand 
a  self-renunciation  unreserved  and  entire,  and  they 
demand  an  organism  where  the  Holy  Spirit  may  be 
received  in  multiplied  measure,  and  whence  the 
Christ  may  have  a  new  and  constant  forthgoing  for 
the  conquest  of  the  world.  Individual  consecration, 
and  that  consecration  made  effective  in  a  conse- 
crated life  and  calling,  are  both  essential  conditions. 
I  will  not  deny  that  a  man  may  take  his  solitary 
walk  to  heaven  and  do  good  by  the  way,  as  occasion 


334  SERMONS  AND  SONGS. 

offers.  But  we  are  speaking  now  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
as  it  floods  the  soul  with  a  most  full  and  abiding 
sense  of  the  presence,  the  peace  and  the  love  of 
God.  And  I  say  this  is  not  found  in  your  solitary 
walk,  or  on  your  rock  of  independence,  as  it  is  found 
in  the  brotherhood  of  hearts  and  minds  lifted  up  in 
prayer  together.  It  did  not  single  out  John  and 
Peter  and  Andrew,  and  endow  them  apart  and 
separate.  It  was  when  they  were  "  with  one  accord 
in  one  place,"  that  it  swept  all  their  hearts  as  one 
human  lyre,  and  so  it  has  been  ever  since  in  the 
Church  of  Christ.  The  individual  alone  and  apart 
may  not  receive  it  in  full  measure.  The  collective 
body  of  Christ  coming  together  with  one  accord  to 
do  his  work  and  extend  his  reign  have  always  been 
"  endued  with  power  from  on  high." 


PUBLISHED  BY 

CLAXTON,  REMSEN  &  HAFFELFINGER,  Philadelphia. 
NOTES,  HOLMES  &  CO.,  Boston. 


The  Fourth  Gospel,  the  Heart  of  Christ.     By  Ed- 
mund H.  Sears.     i2mo.,  pp.  551.     Extra  cloth,  $2,150. 

Opinions  of  the  Press. 

"  '  The  Fourth  Gospel,  the  Heart  of  Christ,'  is  a  book  of  extraordi- 
nary interest.  .  .  .  Judged  as  a  volume  on  its  own  merits,  it  is  a  rich 
and  fresh  contribution  to  the  literature  of  the  ages  touching  the  life 
of  our  Lord.  It  is  instructive  and  suggestive  in  the  highest  ranges 
of  Christian  thought  and  feeling."  —  The  Congregationalist. 

"  No  book  of  recent  American  theology  is  likely  to  win  more  notice 
from  thoughtful  readers  than  this  handsome  volume  by  Edmund  H. 
Sears,  of  551  pages.  As  a  work  of  literary  art,  it  has  great  merit; 
and  its  clear,  rich,  and  vivid  style  carries  in  its  flow  great  wealth  of 
thought  and  learning  with  cumulative  power  to  the  end." — The 
Church  and  State. 

"  This  is  a  very  strong  book  —  the  work  of  a  powerful  and  inde- 
pendent thinker ;  and  as  an  exposition  of  the  Johannean  theology,  it 
has  probably  never  been  surpassed  in  acumen  and  thoroughness."  — 
The  Literary  World. 

"  We  regard  this  book  as  altogether  the  most  valuable  contribution 
to  theological  literature  which  has  been  made  during  the  present  cen- 
tury, and  one  destined  to  exert  a  most  powerful  and  benign  influence 
on  all  the  churches.  For  no  minister  or  theological  student  can 
afford  to  be  without  it,  while  no  one  can  read  it  attentively  without 
being  profoundly  impressed  by  it." — Arthur's  Home  Magazine. 

"One  of  the  most  deeply  interesting  volumes  of  this  generation. 
It  is  as  much  superior  to  •  Ecce  Homo '  in  power  of  statement,  grasp 
of  thought,  and  freshness  of  conception,  as  that  was  to  the  Christolo- 
gies  of  average  writers."  — The  Light  of  Home. 

"  It  is  a  long  time  since  an  American  treatise  on  theology  has  pro- 
duced any  marked  effect  upon  religious  thought.  .  .  .  But  the  book 
of  Dr.  Edmund  H.  Sears,  entitled  •  The  Heart  of  Christ,'  is  destined, 
we  believe,  to  exert  a  powerful  influence  upon  the  opinions  of  think- 
ing men  in  all  branches  of  the  church. 

"  The  argument  of  the  book  is  cumulative,  and  one  needs  to  read 
it  through  conscientiously  in  order  to  feel  the  strength  of  its  positions. 
We  believe  that  the  interest  which  it  has  awakened  is  likely  to  in- 
crease ;  and  that,  while  it  will  lead  toward  a  modification  of  the  theo- 
ries both  of  the  Orthodox  and  of  the  Unitarian  theologians,  it  will 
tend  powerfully  to  conserve  and  establish  the  essential  truths  of  tbe 
Christian  system."  —  The  New  York  Lndependent. 

1 


RECENT  PUBLICATIONS 

OF 

OLAXTON,  EEMSEN  &  HAFFELFINGER. 

FOREGLEAMS    AND    FORESHADOWS    OF     IMMORTALITY.       By 

Edmund  H.  Sears.     121110.     New  (and  Eleventh)  Edi- 
tion, revised  and  greatly  enlarged.   Extra  cloth,  $1.75. 

"  The  '  Foregleams  of  Immortality  '  will  stand  as  a  lovely  classic 
in  sacred  literature,  and  a  beautiful  inspiration  of  pure  devotional 
feeling.  .  .  .  The  best  test  of  merit  of  a  book  is  when  we  feel  we 
have  been  made  better  by  reading  it ;  and  while  the  one  now  before 
us  widens  the  field  of  intellectual  vision,  and  makes  solid  and  sub- 
stantial the  bridge  from  time  to  eternity,  it  quickens  the  conscience  in 
its  sense  of  duty,  and  softens  the  heart  with  a  tender  and  more  celes- 
tial love."  —  Christian  Inquirer. 

"  Dr.  Sears  has  done  a  valuable  service  to  reflecting  minds  in  the 
preparation  of  this  volume.  .  .  .  Nowhere  is  the  argument  for  im- 
mortality more  clearly  set  forth ;  nowhere  are  the  Scripture  facts, 
which  testify  to  and  affirm  it,  marshalled  in  closer  array,  or  arranged 
with  more  logical  consistency.  The  clear  and  beautiful  style  of  the 
author  adds  new  power  to  the  lesson  he  has  sought  to  teach,  and  gives 
added  brightness  to  the  page  on  which  it  is  written."  — Boston  Even- 
ing Transcript. 

"  The  other  productions  of  Mr.  Sears  have  been  marked  by  the 
loftiest  moral  beauty,  in  the  purest  and  most  elegant  diction;  but 
this  is  his  chef-d'ceuvre  in  many  respects.  .  .  .  We  know  no  religious 
work  of  the  age  adapted  to  make  a  deeper,  more  practical,  and  more 
gladdening  impression  on  thoughtful  and  lofty  minds."  —  Christian 
Register. 

"  Few  books  have  pleased  me  so  much  as  '  Foregleams  of  Immor- 
tality.' It  is  full  of  beauty  and  truth.  The  writer  is  wise  from  Swe- 
denborg,  and  has  his  own  gifts  besides.  I  can  scarcely  conceive  of 
his  writings  not  impressing  many,  and  deeply.  I  have  lent  the  book 
and  recommended  it  in  England,  where  the  husks  of  the  old  theology 
interfere  much  with  development  and  growth.  Certainly  it  is  a  most 
beautiful  and  pungent  book."  —  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning,  in 
a  letter  to  an  American  friend. 

"  There  is  much  in  the  details  of  the  volume  which  is  instructive, 
and  especially  as  regards  the  reality  and  some  of  the  features  of  the 
intermediate  state.  .  .  .  The  concluding  part  of  the  book  is  entirely 
new,  being  on  the  '  Symphony  of  Religions,'  and  sets  forth  the  im- 
perfect but  yet  valuable  testimony  of  the  various  heathen  religions  to 
the  grand  truth  of  Immortality."  —  Chicago  Advance. 

"  A  very  interesting  volume.  The  author  has  herein  discussed 
the  pregnant  theme  of  Immortality  with  signal  ability,  clothing  his 
thoughts  in  language  so  chaste  and  elegant,  and  illustrating  his  ideas 
by  such  a  profusion  of  appropriate  imagery,  that  the  book  has  all  the 
fascination  of  a  beautiful  poem."  —  The  S-wedenborgian. 

1 


